BRAIN EAGER: Discovery and characterization of neural circuitry from behavior, connectivity patterns and activity patterns

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

Johns Hopkins University is awarded a grant for research leading to an improved understanding of how the brain is connected. Drosophila larvae, with 10000 neurons (and about 1000 neuron types), offer an opportunity to determine how an entire nervous system generates behavior. The research combines information from three sources: a neuron activity map of the entire Drosphila larval nervous system; a library of neuronal lines yielding a neuron behavior map; and a "wiring diagram" or connectome for the entire larval nervous system. Together, the neuron-behavior map, the neuron-activity map, and the connectome complement one another, laying the groundwork for a brain-wide understanding of the principles by which brains generate behavior. The technical goals for this project will be to develop principled statistical pattern recognition & machine learning methods for clustering neurons based on three different data sets, both individually and jointly. The extent to which clusters obtained from the three datasets agree, and the manner in which they disagree, will reveal how the structure of neural circuits relates to their function and how brains generate behavior. Current methods for discovery and characterization of neural circuitry from behavior, connectivity patterns and activity patterns - fusion and inference from multiple disparate data sources- are insufficient; the approach developed in this project will yield improved methods developed in conjunction with neuroscientists.