Google Mapped a Fruit Fly's Brain. Now It's Playing Doom and Super Mario 64
20 days ago
- Google and Janelia Research Campus published the first complete map of an adult fruit fly's brain and central nervous system, called a connectome.
- The connectome includes over 166,000 neurons and 125 million synaptic connections, making it the largest brain map by neuron count to date.
- Researchers built the map by slicing the nervous system into ultra-thin sections, imaging them with electron microscopy, and using AI to reconstruct the neurons in 3D.
- The project aims to help scientists understand how nervous systems process the world and potentially how to repair damaged neural pathways; mapping a human brain remains impossible for now.
- Within days of publication, developers online began using the fly brain data to play video games, such as training the simulated brain to play Doom and Super Mario 64.
- Other experiments included using the simulated fly brain in Minecraft, making it respond to tones with YMCA poses, and having it watch the Bad Apple!! animation.
- Google is already working on connectomes for fish and mice, suggesting more brain-map-driven experiments are likely in the future.