Using fruit flies, scientists have now constructed the largest brain map to date. The dream of creating a fruit fly connectome—a wiring diagram of neurons and synapses—has been nurtured for more than a decade, says Gerry Rubin, executive director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus.
Integrative neuroscience describes the effort to combine models and information from multiple levels of research to develop a coherent model of the nervous system. For example, brain imaging coupled with physiological numerical models and theories of fundamental mechanisms may shed light on psychiatric disorders.
Questions addressed in cellular neuroscience include the mechanisms of how neurons process signals physiologically and electrochemically. These questions include how signals are processed by neurites and somas and how neurotransmitters and electrical signals are used to process information in a neuron.
