{"id":101280,"date":"2020-01-23T03:02:59","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T11:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/google-publishes-largest-ever-high-resolution-map-of-brain-connectivity"},"modified":"2020-01-23T03:02:59","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T11:02:59","slug":"google-publishes-largest-ever-high-resolution-map-of-brain-connectivity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/google-publishes-largest-ever-high-resolution-map-of-brain-connectivity","title":{"rendered":"Google publishes largest ever high-resolution map of brain connectivity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PeyHKdmBpqY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Scientists from Google and the Janelia Research Campus in Virginia have published the largest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.janelia.org\/project-team\/flyem\/hemibrain\">high-resolution map<\/a> of brain connectivity in any animal, sharing a 3D model that traces 20 million synapses connecting some 25,000 neurons in the brain of a fruit fly.<\/p>\n<p>The model is a milestone in the field of connectomics, which uses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/2\/27\/18241492\/brain-map-supercomputer-mouse-national-lab-chicago-theta\">detailed imaging techniques<\/a> to map the physical pathways of the brain. This map, known as a \u201cconnectome,\u201d covers roughly one-third of the fruit fly\u2019s brain. To date, only a single organism, the roundworm<em> C. elegans<\/em>, has had its brain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/07\/03\/science\/roundworm-brain-mapping.html\">completely mapped<\/a> in this way.<\/p>\n<p>Connectomics has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/c-elegans-connectome\/\">mixed reputation<\/a> in the science world. Advocates argue that it helps link physical parts of the brain to specific behaviors, which is a key goal in neuroscience. But <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/the-spike\/mindlessly-mapping-the-brain-1dec092a404d\">critics<\/a> note it has yet to produce any major breakthroughs, and they say that the painstaking work of mapping neurons is a drain on resources that might be better put to use elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists from Google and the Janelia Research Campus in Virginia have published the largest high-resolution map of brain connectivity in any animal, sharing a 3D model that traces 20 million synapses connecting some 25,000 neurons in the brain of a fruit fly. The model is a milestone in the field of connectomics, which uses detailed [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":396,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1965,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/396"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}