Fly brain ‘atlas’ opens door to linking human neurons to actions

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – Research unveiled on Thursday identifies the brain neurons that cause every behavior fruit fly larvae execute, raising the tantalizing possibility that neuroscientists will be able to construct a similar “atlas” in people. Such a human brain atlas is one goal of the $100 million BRAIN Initiative that President Barack Obama announced a year ago, and the fly research raises hopes that it will be possible to deal with the data deluge that project will generate. For the study, which was published online by the journal Science, scientists led by biologist Marta Zlatic of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Farm research center in Virginia first activated a few neurons at a time in the larvae of the fruit fly drosophila, using a technique called optogenetics, in which light causes particular neurons to fire. She and her team then compiled thousands of hours of video recordings of how 37,780 fly larvae behaved in response to each neuronal activation.