Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Neural networks mapped in both sexes of the worm

Understanding how the brain’s functions emerge from the workings of neural circuits is a central pursuit of neuroscience. New wiring diagrams of the nervous system in both sexes of a worm mark important progress.
  1. Douglas S. Portman

    1. Douglas S. Portman is in the Department of Biomedical Genetics, Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Across biology, function follows form. The structure of a wing provides insight into flight; the anatomy of the lung suggests mechanisms for gas exchange. When applied to the brain, however, this approach falters. The uniform, gelatinous consistency of the mammalian brain belies an almost inconceivable cellular complexity: billions of nerve cells (neurons), interacting through trillions of connections (synapses), form circuits that perceive stimuli, store memories and generate emotions. What if we had a complete map of these connections? Would this help us to understand how the brain works? This is the premise of ‘connectomics’, the systematic identification of all connections in a nervous system. Writing in Nature, Cook et al.1 report the complete connectomes of both sexes of a tiny roundworm — a major step towards understanding how a brain’s function emerges from its form.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 571, 40-42 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02006-8

References

  1. Cook, S. J. et al. Nature 571, 63–71 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Ankeny, R. Nature Rev. Genet. 2, 474–279 (2001).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. White, J. G., Southgate, E., Thomson, J. N. & Brenner, S. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B 314, 1–340 (1986).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Durbin, R. M. Studies on the Development and Organisation of the Nervous System of Caenorhabditis elegans. PhD thesis, Univ. Cambridge (1987).

  5. Hall, D. H. & Russell, R. L. J. Neurosci. 11, 1–22 (1991).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Varshney, L. R., Chen, B. L., Paniagua, E., Hall, D. H. & Chklovskii, D. B. PLoS Comput. Biol. 7, e1001066 (2011).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Jarrell, T. A. et al. Science 337, 437–444 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Oren-Suissa, M., Bayer, E. A. & Hobert, O. Nature 533, 206–211 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Bargmann, C. I. & Marder, E. Nature Methods 10, 483–490 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Nguyen, J. P. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, E1074–E1081 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Venkatachalam, V. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, E1082–1088 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Szigeti, B. et al. Front. Comput. Neurosci. 8, 137 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links