Human brains and fruit fly brains are built similarly – visualizing how helps researchers better understand how both work

Collaborator Dr. Kristin Scaplen at Bryant University recently wrote a brief article describing use of trans-Tango, a genetic transsynaptic tracing tool developed by collaborator Dr. Gilad Barnea at Brown University.

This article entitled "Human brains and fruit fly brains are build similarly - visualizing how helps researchers better understand how both work" was published in The Conversation, and describes how using this tool provided valuable input into how the learning and memory structures of the Drosophila brain were connected to structures important for behavioral decisions.

An example of how this tool works in the fly brain is seen here where a pre-synaptic mushroom body output neuron, labelled in green, is connected to neurons that are a part of the fan-shaped body (in red). trans-Tango, and tools like it, are helping us understand how structures of the brain communicate with each other to result in simple and complex behaviors.