As big brain-mapping initiatives
go, Taiwan's might seem small. Scientists there are studying the humble fruit
fly, reverse-engineering its brain from images of single neurons. Their efforts
have produced 3D maps of brain circuitry in stunning detail. Researchers need
only a computer mouse and web browser to home in on individual cells and zoom
back out to intertwined networks of nerve bundles. The wiring diagrams look
like colorful threads on a tapestry, and they're clear enough to show which
cell clusters control specific behaviors. By stimulating a specific neural
circuit, researchers can cue a fly to flap its left wing or swing its head from
side to side.
But even for such a small
creature, it has taken the team a full decade to image 60,000 neurons, at a
rate of 1 gigabyte per cell, and that's not even half of the nerve cells in the
Drosophila brain. Using the same protocol to image the 86 billion neurons in
the human brain would take an estimated 17 million years, Chiang reported at
the meeting. Other technologies are more tractable. So it goes in the world of
neurobiology, where big data is truly, epically big. Despite advances in
computing infrastructure and data transmission, neuroscientists continue to
grapple with their version of the 'big data' revolution that swept the genomics
field decades ago.
More information: