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3D image reveals hidden neurons in fruit-fly brain
Scientists have produced a 3D image of a fruit fly's brain that's so detailed, researchers can trace connections between neurons across the entire organ.
Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) display a suite of complex behaviours, including courtship dances and learning. But understanding the neural networks that drive these behaviours remains a challenge. The data from this image, published on 19 July in Cell, resolved the insect's brain down to individual cells — revealing some neurons that have never been seen before. This offers scientists a new tool with which to study fruit-fly behaviour and allows them to compare the insects' neural networks with that of other species.
Researchers cut a fly's brain — roughly the size of a poppy seed — into more than 7,000 slices and shot a beam of electrons through the sample. A high-speed camera captured high-resolution pictures of each slice — a process never used before — generating roughly 21 million images that the team stitched together using custom computer software.
Also at Science Magazine, Science News, Discovery Magazine, and National Geographic.
A Complete Electron Microscopy Volume of the Brain of Adult Drosophila melanogaster (open, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2018.06.019) (DX)
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:30PM (2 children)
Anyone have an inkling as to why a fruit fly was chosen? Is it the smallest/most common animal brain to work with? There must be a reason.
(Score: 4, Informative) by deimtee on Saturday July 21 2018, @08:59PM
They are one of the most common experimental subjects. They are not dangerous, breed quickly, are easy to keep, and PETA types don't care if you torture them.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 21 2018, @09:18PM
To defend the bananas. We must know the enemy more than he knows himself; hence the scanning of their evil anti-banana brains.