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In the video above, NIH director Francis Collins, M.D. talks about one technology that “uses lasers to noninvasively turn hundreds of specific cells on off anywhere in the brain.” Then he talks about a BRAIN technology that “allows real time tracking of neurotransmitters to be observed.” Later, he reiterates “the ability to track real time movements of neurotransmitters.” Apparently only $4.5 billion will be “required for this kind of moonshot.”
Who signed on to the BRAIN Initiative? DARPA, IARPA, NIH, FDA and NSF, among others.
Fast forward to 2020-2024. A synthetically created Covid virus was based on genomic research. Then a Covid “vaccine” that employed genomic research, plus fragments of nano-technology that apparently was designed to send signals out of the body. Really?
Was the entire human race coopted for a huge, clandestine experiment to test these technologies that Collins talked about in 2013? If so, then the next wave assault is about to begin.
This would be a good time to listen to our recent 5-hour Omniwar Symposium to see how this fits together.
⁃ Patrick Wood, TN Editor.
For the first time, neuroscientists have just finished mapping out the entire brain of an adult fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). The research reveals the most complete map of a brain, including microscopic details from 140,000 neurons, millions of connections to other brain cells, and the discovery of new nerve cells.
The fruit fly “connectome” is explained in nine research articles published in a special issue of the journal Nature.
Why did scientists choose to map out the brains of fruit flies rather than the other big-brained animals in the world? While fruit flies are not the smartest animals, understanding their neural circuits will help humans understand their own complex brains. These pesky critters share 60% of human DNA and have related versions of most human genetic diseases. Having a complete map of a brain that shares similarities with the human brain could help to unravel the hundred trillion brain connections that are altered in neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
“This is a major achievement,” says Mala Murthy, a professor of neuroscience at Princeton University and director of the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, in a media release. “There is no other full brain connectome for an adult animal of this complexity.”
The FlyWire Consortium was first started at Princeton University and comprises over 76 laboratories, 287 researchers worldwide, and volunteer gamers. The brain map was constructed after 21 million images of a female fruit fly brain were taken. The team then built an AI model to convert the lumps and blobs in the images into a labeled, three-dimensional map.
“What we built is, in many ways, an atlas,” adds Sven Dorkenwald, a PhD graduate of Princeton who is now a researcher at the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for Brain Science. “Just like you wouldn’t want to drive to a new place without Google Maps, you don’t want to explore the brain without a map. What we have done is build an atlas of the brain, and added annotations for all the businesses, the buildings, the street names. With this, researchers are now equipped to thoughtfully navigate the brain as we try to understand it.”
The fruit fly connectome is one of the most complete maps of an animal brain. Previous work from other researchers has sketched out the brain of a C. elegans with 302 neurons. Neuroscientists have also mapped out the brain of a larval fruit fly with 3,000 neurons.
The adult fruit fly was a more massive undertaking. Researchers had to analyze 140,000 neurons and approximately 50 million synapses that connect them in their neural network. Like a map used when driving to a new destination, the brain atlas breaks down every route and avenue of brain connections in adult fruit flies. With the brain map, scientists can pinpoint which neurons relate to each behavior, especially for maladaptive behavior contributing to neurological diseases.
“Without a detailed understanding of how neurons connect with one another, we won’t have a basic understanding of what goes right in a healthy brain or what goes wrong in disease,” says John Ngai, a director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s BRAIN Initiative, which provided partial funding for the research project.
Paper Summary
Methodology
The study aimed to map the neuronal wiring of an entire adult Drosophila melanogaster brain. Researchers used serial section electron microscopy to capture detailed images of the brain, allowing them to reconstruct the connections between neurons. This involved creating a connectome, or a complete map of synapses, which shows how neurons communicate with each other. The process started by imaging the fly’s brain in slices, aligning those images, and then using machine learning algorithms and manual proofreading by a global community of scientists to identify and map over 139,000 neurons and 54.5 million synapses.
The reconstruction work was divided among specialized teams, who annotated and analyzed the brain using advanced computational tools, like FlyWire, for visualizing and organizing data. The study particularly focused on mapping projections between different brain regions to understand how sensory inputs flow to motor outputs.
Key Results
The researchers successfully created the first complete wiring diagram, or connectome, of an adult fly brain, revealing over 139,000 neurons and millions of synaptic connections. They identified the paths that sensory signals, such as vision and smell, take as they move from sensory neurons to motor neurons, which control behavior.
They also mapped out different types of neurons based on their roles, such as sensory, motor, and interneurons, and found that many neurons in the fly brain communicate across hemispheres. Importantly, they showed how the wiring of different regions of the brain allows for complex functions like motion, memory, and sensory integration.
Study Limitations
Although the study provides a detailed map of the adult fly brain, there are several limitations. First, the connectome represents only one individual fly, and individual variability in brain structure may not be fully captured. Additionally, the map focuses on chemical synapses, leaving out electrical synapses that could also play a role in brain function.
Another limitation is that while the connectome shows which neurons are connected, it does not directly show how strongly or frequently these neurons communicate, which could impact understanding of behavior. Finally, because the reconstruction process involved some automated tools, there is potential for minor errors in neuron segmentation or synapse identification.
Discussion & Takeaways
This study provides groundbreaking insight into how a whole brain can be mapped at the synaptic level, offering valuable data for neuroscientists studying brain function and behavior. The connectome shows that the brain is highly interconnected, with specific regions dedicated to processing different types of sensory information while others focus on integrating this information to produce actions.
These findings could have implications beyond flies, as similar organizational principles might apply to larger and more complex brains, including those of mammals. A key takeaway is that understanding these neural connections can lead to a better grasp of how brains generate behaviors, which could eventually aid in understanding human neural disorders.
Funding & Disclosures
The study was supported by several institutions and research organizations, including the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology. Additionally, contributions from citizen scientists via platforms like FlyWire were critical to the manual proofreading of the connectome data. The researchers disclosed no conflicts of interest, and the study’s data and tools have been made available to the public through online resources, encouraging further exploration and research by the wider scientific community.
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