Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain
Nature 634, 124-138 (2024)
Abstract
Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analyzing electron microscope images of brain tissue. The resulting 'connectomes' map neural circuits, but have been limited to small insect and worm brains or portions of larger brains. Here we present a neuronal wiring diagram of an entire adult female Drosophila melanogaster brain.
The connectome contains roughly 140,000 neurons and 50 million synaptic connections. The neurons have been matched to cell types and brain regions, and their synaptic partners identified. The complete wiring diagram enables comprehensive analysis of circuit motifs and signal flow throughout the brain.
Our Contribution
Ground Truth Annotation
Our team provided Ground Truth synapse annotations used to train and validate the automated synapse detection pipeline.
Specific contributions include:
- Synapse Ground Truth — Manual annotation of synaptic clefts for training data
- Proofreading Validation — Verification of automated segmentation quality
- Quality Assurance — Systematic review of reconstruction accuracy
Related Internal Documentation
- GT Task Handling SOP Standard procedures used for this project
- Fly Synapses Guide Synapse identification training material
- Synapse Identification (Master Guide) 4 indicators, 5 synapse types
- FAFB Gallery Images Visual references from this dataset
Associated Dataset
Pipeline Stages Involved
This publication involved work across multiple pipeline stages:
Pipeline Stages
Task Types
Key Findings (Summary)
- First complete connectome of an adult insect brain
- Comprehensive cell type catalog with ~8,400 distinct types
- Complete synaptic connectivity for all neurons
- Identification of circuit motifs across brain regions
- Resources for exploring neural pathways and signal flow
Related Publications
- FlyWire: online community for whole-brain connectomics — Nature Methods, 2022
- Synaptic cleft segmentation in non-isotropic EM — MICCAI, 2018