)With the American Scientific Affiliation meeting coming up this week, I’ve got connecting on the brain. And now after catching up with the science news, I’m also thinking about the connections in the fruit fly brain. It was announced last week that scientists have taken a series of images of a fruit fly brain with enough detail to see every neuron. Of even greater interest is the ability to see every connection between pairs of neurons. Studying how neurons are “wired up” can provide insight into where specific sensory information is processed, for example, which might illuminate how that information is processed. As a first step, some researchers looked at the neurons connected to the olfactory system–where the fruit fly presumably detects the aroma of bananas.
[Read more…] about Science Corner: Fruit Flies Like a Banana… And We’re Closer to Knowing Why
