Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain

Abstract Connections between neurons can be mapped by acquiring and analysing electron microscopic brain images. In recent years, this approach has been applied to chunks of brains to reconstruct local connectivity maps that are highly informative 1–6 , but nevertheless inadequate for understanding brain function more globally. Here we present a neuronal wiring diagram of a whole brain containing 5 × 10 7 chemical synapses 7 between 139,255 neurons reconstructed from an adult female Drosophila melanogaster 8,9 . The resource also incorporates annotations of cell classes and types, nerves, hemilineages and predictions of neurotransmitter identities 10–12 . Data products are available for download, programmatic…