Overview
- The male Drosophila central nervous system map, published Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026, reconstructs roughly 166,700 neurons across the brain, optic lobes and ventral nerve cord.
- The full dataset and primary study appear in Cell with a companion paper in Current Biology, and three related papers use the map to probe taste, vision and sexually dimorphic social circuits.
- Direct comparison with the earlier female connectome found several hundred sex-specific cell types that make up about 4.8% of male neurons and 2.4% of female neurons, with roughly 9% of male neurons taking part in sex-differing connections.
- The map was built by slicing tissue for focused ion beam electron microscopy, assembling images with machine learning and then applying extensive human proofreading equivalent to 44 years of labor to correct AI errors.
- Researchers say the public resource will let labs target specific neurons for experiments, guide follow-on projects to map other species, and help link genes, circuits and behavior to study brain disorders and decision-making.