The Mind of a Mouse

Larry F. Abbott
Davi D. Bock
Edward M. Callaway
Winfried Denk
Catherine Dulac,
Adrienne L. Fairhall
Ila Fiete
Kristen M. Harris
Moritz Helmstaedter
Narayanan Kasthuri
Yann LeCun
Jeff W. Lichtman
Peter B. Littlewood
Liqun Luo
John H.R. Maunsell
R. Clay Reid
Bruce R. Rosen
Gerald M. Rubin
Terrence J. Sejnowski
H. Sebastian Seung
Karel Svoboda
David W. Tank
Doris Tsao
David C. Van Essen
Cell, 182 (2020)

Abstract

Large scientific projects in genomics and astronomy are influential not because they answer any single ques- tion but because they enable investigation of continuously arising new questions from the same data-rich sources. Advances in automated mapping of the brain’s synaptic connections (connectomics) suggest that the complicated circuits underlying brain function are ripe for analysis. We discuss benefits of mapping a mouse brain at the level of synapses.