Why Scientists Just Mapped Every Synapse In A Fly Brain

Short Wave

NPR

Science, Life Sciences, News, Nature, Daily News, Astronomy

4.7 • 6.5K Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

To really understand the human brain, scientists say you'd have to map its wiring. The only problem: there are more than 100 trillion different connections to find, trace and characterize. But a team of scientists has made a big stride toward this goal, a complete wiring diagram of a teeny, tiny brain: the fruit fly larva.

With a full map, or connectome, of the larval fruit fly brain, scientists can start to understand how behaviors shape, and are shaped by, the specific wiring of neural circuits.

On today's episode, our resident neuroscience aficionado, NPR science correspondent Jon Hamilton, talks over the new findings with Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong, and explains why we big-brained humans ought to care.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave.
0:03.6	From NPR.
0:04.6	Hey, Shortwaveers.
0:06.2	Today we have got some big news about a tiny brain, specifically the brain of a fruit
0:11.3	fly larva.
0:12.6	And here to drop some knowledge as NPR's own tiny brain correspondent, John Hamilton.
0:16.8	Hey, John.
0:17.8	Hey, Emily.
0:19.1	My tiny, larval brain is at your service.
0:21.5	I love it.
0:22.5	Okay.
0:23.5	Tell us about the big news.
0:24.5	And while you're at it, why we humans should care?
0:26.8	With the news, the news is that scientists have created the first complete wiring diagram
0:31.9	of the brain of a fruit fly larva.
0:34.8	In other words, they've been able to map every single connection between neurons in this
0:40.0	animal's brain.
0:41.7	This was published in the journal Science Few Weeks Go and it's a big deal because there
0:45.3	are only a couple of other complete maps and they are of much simpler brains.
0:50.3	So the reason you and I should care is that this new map gets us closer to understanding
0:55.4	how a human brain is wired up.
0:57.4	Yeah, which is a big, big mystery.
	...

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