A new research project led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Janelia Research Campus, in collaboration with Google, has compiled a complete diagram of a male fruit fly’s brain and central nervous system, mapping over 166,000 neurons and 125 million synaptic connections.
Researchers sectioned the brain into millions of ultra-thin slices and used high-resolution imaging, AI, and human proofreading to reconstruct the entire nervous system in 3D, which could have enormous implications for neuroscience, biology, and medicine, helping researchers better understand neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and depression. Researchers are even looking toward mapping larger and more complex brains like mice and Zebrafish. So, naturally, people made it play Doom.
“I’m training a fly brain to play Doom using the full MaleCNS v1.0 fruit fly connectome,” software engineer Alex Wormuth posted on X. “Each Doom frame stimulates sensory neurons. Neural activity is mapped to game controls. Damage triggers a stimulus to two PPL101 dopamine cells as reinforcement. Will the fly learn to survive?”
Wormuth set up a livestream for the fruit fly, so that curious onlookers can keep tabs on the experiment. There’s a built-in UI on the page that displays the fly’s health, ammo, and...
