Mapping the fruit fly brain

Science
News

Mapping
the fruit fly brain

New
digital atlas demystifies complex neuron shapes and connections

By Laura Sanders

May
8th, 2010; Vol.177 #10
(p. 16)

image00114.gifimage00213.gifText
Size

image00313.jpg

image0044.gif

···

Enlargemagnify

A new analysis technique creates a digital neuron atlas of the
fruit fly brain, highlighting how individual brain cells link up.Hanchuan Peng

WASHINGTON
— A new computer-based technique is exploring uncharted territory in the
fruit fly brain with cell-by-cell detail that can be built into networks for a
detailed look at how neurons work together. The research may ultimately lead to
a complete master plan of the entire fly brain. Mapping the estimated 100,000
neurons in a fly brain, and seeing how they interact to control behavior, will
be a powerful tool for figuring out how the billions of neurons in the human
brain work.

The
program has already found some new features of the fruit fly brain, said study
coauthor Hanchuan Peng of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia
Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Va. “We can see very beautiful and very
complicated patterns,” said Peng, who presented the results April 9 at
the 51st Annual Drosophila Research Conference. “If you look at neurons
at a better resolution, or look at regions you’ve never looked at before,
you’ll find something new.”

Peng and
his colleagues developed a method, also described in the April Nature Biotechnology,
which incorporates many different images of fruit fly brains. The brains come
from flies that were genetically programmed so that select neurons glow when
struck with a particular type of laser light. By combining thousands of these
digital images from different flies, the researchers can create maps of how
these different neuronal populations fit together. The full map of the fly
brain isn’t yet complete, but it will grow as more images are added.

These
kinds of large-scale studies that focus on how neurons are connected are
“very important for the future,” commented geneticist Wei Xie of
Southeast University in Nanjing, China. Understanding how all of the neurons
work together is much more meaningful than studying how a single brain cell
connects to another cell, Xie said. “Just a neuron is not enough.”

“What
we want to do in the next few years is to add more and more neuron
reconstructions into this map,” Peng said. He likened the process to a
Google Earth resource. “If you think about the fruit fly brain as the
Earth, the little neurons will be the streets. We want to map a lot of neuron
streets onto the Earth,” he said.

Peng and
his colleagues have started combing their preliminary brain map for interesting
features and comparing different flies’ brains to one another. For the
most part, patterns of neuron-connecting pathways don’t vary much from
brain to brain, the researchers found.

On the
other hand, the shapes of cells in the same brain structure can differ
dramatically. For example, the variety of shapes found in the neurons of a
wheel-shaped brain structure called the ellipsoid body “are just
amazing,” Peng says. In the same fly, some of the cells spread inside the
ring, while others point outward in a complex lock-and-key arrangement.

The
results are preliminary, but finding such unexpected variation could mean that
these neurons — which were thought to be nearly carbon copies of each
other — have important functional differences.

Very Cool! thanks for posting this.

···

On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 11:19 AM, Ted Cloak tcloak@unm.edu wrote:

Science News

Mapping the fruit fly brain

New digital atlas demystifies complex neuron shapes and connections

By Laura Sanders

May 8th, 2010; Vol.177 #10 (p. 16)

Text Size

Enlarge

A new analysis technique creates a digital neuron atlas of the fruit fly brain, highlighting how individual brain cells link up.Hanchuan Peng

WASHINGTON — A new computer-based technique is exploring uncharted territory in the fruit fly brain with cell-by-cell detail that can be built into networks for a detailed look at how neurons work together. The research may ultimately lead to a complete master plan of the entire fly brain. Mapping the estimated 100,000 neurons in a fly brain, and seeing how they interact to control behavior, will be a powerful tool for figuring out how the billions of neurons in the human brain work.

The program has already found some new features of the fruit fly brain, said study coauthor Hanchuan Peng of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Va. “We can see very beautiful and very complicated patterns,” said Peng, who presented the results April 9 at the 51st Annual Drosophila Research Conference. “If you look at neurons at a better resolution, or look at regions you’ve never looked at before, you’ll find something new.”

Peng and his colleagues developed a method, also described in the April Nature Biotechnology, which incorporates many different images of fruit fly brains. The brains come from flies that were genetically programmed so that select neurons glow when struck with a particular type of laser light. By combining thousands of these digital images from different flies, the researchers can create maps of how these different neuronal populations fit together. The full map of the fly brain isn’t yet complete, but it will grow as more images are added.

These kinds of large-scale studies that focus on how neurons are connected are “very important for the future,” commented geneticist Wei Xie of Southeast University in Nanjing, China. Understanding how all of the neurons work together is much more meaningful than studying how a single brain cell connects to another cell, Xie said. “Just a neuron is not enough.”

“What we want to do in the next few years is to add more and more neuron reconstructions into this map,” Peng said. He likened the process to a Google Earth resource. “If you think about the fruit fly brain as the Earth, the little neurons will be the streets. We want to map a lot of neuron streets onto the Earth,” he said.

Peng and his colleagues have started combing their preliminary brain map for interesting features and comparing different flies’ brains to one another. For the most part, patterns of neuron-connecting pathways don’t vary much from brain to brain, the researchers found.

On the other hand, the shapes of cells in the same brain structure can differ dramatically. For example, the variety of shapes found in the neurons of a wheel-shaped brain structure called the ellipsoid body “are just amazing,” Peng says. In the same fly, some of the cells spread inside the ring, while others point outward in a complex lock-and-key arrangement.

The results are preliminary, but finding such unexpected variation could mean that these neurons — which were thought to be nearly carbon copies of each other — have important functional differences.

Yip I have this as my desktop picture.

···

-----Original Message-----
From: Control Systems Group
Network (CSGnet) [mailto:CSGNET@LISTSERV.ILLINOIS.EDU] On Behalf Of Shannon Williams
Sent: Sunday, 16 May
2010 2:20 p.m.
To: CSGNET@LISTSERV.ILLINOIS.EDU
Subject: Re: Mapping the fruit fly
brain

Very
Cool! thanks for posting this.

On Thu, May 13, 2010 at 11:19 AM, Ted Cloak tcloak@unm.edu wrote:

Science News

Mapping the fruit fly brain

New digital atlas demystifies complex
neuron shapes and connections

By Laura Sanders

May 8th, 2010; Vol.177 #10 (p. 16)

Text Size

Enlarge

A new analysis technique creates a digital
neuron atlas of the fruit fly brain, highlighting how individual brain cells
link up.Hanchuan Peng

WASHINGTON — A new computer-based technique is
exploring uncharted territory in the fruit fly brain with cell-by-cell detail
that can be built into networks for a detailed look at how neurons work
together. The research may ultimately lead to a complete master plan of the
entire fly brain. Mapping the estimated 100,000 neurons in a fly brain, and
seeing how they interact to control behavior, will be a powerful tool for
figuring out how the billions of neurons in the human brain work.

The program has already found some new features of the fruit
fly brain, said study coauthor Hanchuan Peng of the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute’s Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Va. “We can see very
beautiful and very complicated patterns,” said Peng, who presented the results
April 9 at the 51st Annual Drosophila Research Conference. “If you look at
neurons at a better resolution, or look at regions you’ve never looked at
before, you’ll find something new.”

Peng and his colleagues developed a method, also described
in the April Nature * * Biotechnology**, which incorporates many different images
of fruit fly brains. The brains come from flies that were genetically
programmed so that select neurons glow when struck with a particular type of
laser light. By combining thousands of these digital images from different
flies, the researchers can create maps of how these different neuronal
populations fit together. The full map of the fly brain isn’t yet complete, but
it will grow as more images are added.

These kinds of large-scale studies that focus on how neurons
are connected are “very important for the future,” commented geneticist Wei Xie of Southeast University in Nanjing, China. Understanding
how all of the neurons work together is much more meaningful than studying how
a single brain cell connects to another cell, Xie said. “Just a neuron is not
enough.”

“What we want to do in the next few years is to add more and
more neuron reconstructions into this map,” Peng said. He likened the process
to a Google Earth resource. “If you think about the fruit fly brain as the
Earth, the little neurons will be the streets. We want to map a lot of neuron
streets onto the Earth,” he said.

Peng and his colleagues have started combing their
preliminary brain map for interesting features and comparing different flies’
brains to one another. For the most part, patterns of neuron-connecting
pathways don’t vary much from brain to brain, the researchers found.

On the other hand, the shapes of cells in the same brain
structure can differ dramatically. For example, the variety of shapes found in
the neurons of a wheel-shaped brain structure called the ellipsoid body “are
just amazing,” Peng says. In the same fly, some of the cells spread inside the
ring, while others point outward in a complex lock-and-key arrangement.

The results are preliminary, but finding such unexpected
variation could mean that these neurons — which were thought to be nearly
carbon copies of each other — have important functional differences.