Fruit Fly Brain Mapped, Used to Play Video Games
The Google Research team has made a significant breakthrough in neuroscience by creating a detailed 3D map of an adult male fruit fly's central nervous system. This dataset, known as MaleCNS v1.0 connectome, consists of over 166,000 neurons and roughly 125 million synaptic connections across the fly's brain and central nervous system.
The researchers achieved this by slicing the insect's nervous system into millions of ultra-thin sections, scanning them under high-powered electron microscopes, and relying on AI algorithms alongside years of manual verification to trace every micro-pathway in 3D space.
Within days of publishing the open-source dataset, software engineers recognized its potential as a complex computational engine ready to be programmed. One engineer, Alex Wormuth, successfully converted the fly's connectome into an active neural simulator to play Doom (1993 version), while another programmer, Jessica Paquette, built a framework using the 166,700-neuron model to pilot Mario in Super Mario 64.
These demos demonstrate that a mapped biological brain can process arbitrary sensory data and output functional decisions. Google is already eyeing larger targets, including fish and mice, to further understand the human brain and develop new technologies.