Communications of the ACM
Artificial Intelligence Helps Scientists Map Behavior in the Fruit Fly Brain
Aided by artificial intelligence, researchers have made 100 billion annotations of behavior from 400,000 flies to create a collection of maps linking fly mannerisms to their corresponding brain regions.
Credit: Kristin Branson
Scientists have used artificial intelligence technology to make 100 billion annotations of behavior from 400,000 fruit flies to create a collection of maps that link fly mannerisms to their corresponding brain regions.
Computer scientist Kristin Branson at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia and colleagues acquired 2,204 different genetically modified fruit fly strains. The team placed groups of 10 male and 10 female flies at a time in a shallow, camera-equipped arena and captured 30,000 frames of video per each 16-minute session. The team selected 14 behaviors to study that were used to train a machine-learning program.
Using computer-vision technology, researchers detected differences between the strains too subtle for the human eye to accurately describe.
Branson says the technology could serve as a launching pad for other neurobiologists seeking to manipulate parts of the brain or study a specific behavior, such as female aggression in fruit flies.
From Science
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