Google maps fruit fly brain and nervous system

A collaborative research effort involving Google Research, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Janelia Research Campus, and other institutions has successfully mapped the complete brain and central nervous system of an adult male fruit fly. Published in the journal Cell, the MaleCNS v1.0 dataset provides a 3D reconstruction of approximately 166,700 neurons and over 125 million connections.

Following the release of this connectome, software engineers and developers have begun using the neural map to drive digital environments. One project, dubbed ‘Doomfly’, connects the fly's neural wiring to the game Doom, translating visual frames into sensory neuron stimulation and mapping neural activity to game controls like movement and shooting. Other experimental implementations include ‘Fly64’, which uses the model to navigate Super Mario 64, and attempts to use the neural circuits to operate simulated vehicles.

While these experiments do not represent a perfect biological reproduction of a living brain—as they rely on human-defined mappings for game controls—they demonstrate the potential for using biological neural architectures to advance neuroscience and inform new computer design.