2020/09/03 by Louis K. Scheffer, C. Shan Xu, Michał Januszewski +97 · 21 citations
Neuroscience · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research #Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms #Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
paper · doi:10.7554/elife.57443
openalex publication_date 2020/09/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The neural circuits responsible for animal behavior remain largely unknown. We summarize new methods and present the circuitry of a large fraction of the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster . Improved methods include new procedures to prepare, image, align, segment, find synapses in, and proofread such large data sets. We define cell types, refine computational compartments, and provide an exhaustive atlas of cell examples and types, many of them novel. We provide detailed circuits consisting of neurons and their chemical synapses for most of the central brain. We make the data public and simplify access, reducing the effort needed to answer circuit questions, and provide procedures linking the neurons defined by our analysis with genetic reagents. Biologically, we examine distributions of connection strengths, neural motifs on different scales, electrical consequences of compartmentalization, and evidence that maximizing packing density is an important criterion in the evolution of the fly’s brain.