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posted by mrpg on Sunday October 06, @08:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the next:bumblebees dept.

Scientists map fruit fly brain in neurobiological milestone:

Scientists announced on Thursday a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that may provide insight into brains across the animal kingdom, including people.

The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons - brain nerve cells - in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It also could pave the way for mapping the brains of other species.

"You might be asking why we should care about the brain of a fruit fly. My simple answer is that if we can truly understand how any brain functions, it's bound to tell us something about all brains," said Princeton University professor of neuroscience and computer science Sebastian Seung, one of the co-leaders of the work published in a series of studies in the journal Nature

[...] "And flies are an important model system for neurosciences. Their brains solve many of the same problems we do... They're capable of sophisticated behaviors like the execution of walking and flying, learning and memory behaviors, navigation, feeding and even social interactions, which is a behavior that we studied in my lab at Princeton," Murthy added.


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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06, @09:23PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06, @09:23PM (#1376019)

    Brainz is only part.

    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06, @11:07PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 06, @11:07PM (#1376029)

      But brainz is the yummy part!

      • (Score: 2) by Tork on Monday October 07, @12:52AM (1 child)

        by Tork (3914) Subscriber Badge on Monday October 07, @12:52AM (#1376039)
        Not so fast, think about what's telling you that.
        --
        🏳️‍🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️‍🌈
        • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 07, @02:29PM

          by Freeman (732) on Monday October 07, @02:29PM (#1376098) Journal

          The taste buds obviously! How else would they know they were yummy?

          --
          Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday October 07, @02:34AM (2 children)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Monday October 07, @02:34AM (#1376055)

    he learned that the company was breaking off its ties with Boeing

    When a company chooses to ignore even Boeing engineering recommendations, you know there's something really, really wrong going on.

    • (Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday October 07, @03:01AM (1 child)

      by Rosco P. Coltrane (4757) on Monday October 07, @03:01AM (#1376058)

      How did this end up tacked onto this story and not the Titan sub one???

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 07, @07:52AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 07, @07:52AM (#1376071)

        Boeing Navigational Systems.

  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08, @03:35AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 08, @03:35AM (#1376178)

    It would have been easier to map the MAGA brain. It's much smaller.

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