Princeton University Donald R. Hamilton Colloquium Series

Abstract: Recently a fruit fly brain was reconstructed in electron microscopic detail. Tens of millions of synapses were identified on over 100,000 neurons' entangled branches, which would span a football field if unraveled end to end. This "fly connectome" was hailed by the media as a revolutionary achievement. But can a digital map of a dead brain, no matter how detailed, really tell us about the mind of a fly? I will show you the dazzling sights of fly neurons, and then I will help you decipher their meaning. Just by looking and thinking, you will understand some of the workings of a fly's mind