Abstract
Animal behaviour arises from computations in neuronal
circuits, but our understanding of these computations has been
frustrated by the lack of detailed synaptic connection maps,
or connectomes. For example, despite intensive investigations
over half a century, the neuronal implementation of local
motion detection in the insect visual system remains
elusive. Here we develop a semi-automated pipeline using
electron microscopy to reconstruct a connectome, containing
379 neurons and 8,637 chemical synaptic contacts, within the
Drosophila optic medulla. By matching reconstructed neurons to
examples from light microscopy, we assigned neurons to cell
types and assembled a connectome of the repeating module of
the medulla. Within this module, we identified cell types
constituting a motion detection circuit, and showed that the
connections onto individual motion-sensitive neurons in this
circuit were consistent with their direction selectivity. Our
results identify cellular targets for future functional
investigations, and demonstrate that connectomes can provide
key insights into neuronal computations.
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