Brain research is headed in the right direction (get it?)

Get ready for an incongruous juxtaposition: the largest brain map that scientists have ever created came from the mind of a baby fruit fly. Ya know, those tiny lil guys that let you know when the bananas on the counter go bad.

According to a new study published Friday in the peer-reviewed journal Science, a team of international researchers has successfully mapped every single neuron and connection within the brain of a fruit fly larva. It represents the largest and most complex brain map ever created, per multiple sources.

🧠🔬 The methodology: Scientists used electron microscopy to study 4,841 individual brain slices – each ~1,600x thinner than a sheet of paper – from a six-hour-old fruit fly. They then reconstructed the insect’s brain in its entirety based on those scans, a process that took 12 years to complete.

💥 The impact: Based on the findings published Friday, future researchers will be able to study how electrical signals moving between specific neurons can affect fruit fly behavior – or in other words, how the insect’s thoughts are translated into actions.

And since fruit flies share many biological similarities with humans, the insights gleaned from the insect’s brain will likely help explain how our brain works too, per the study’s authors.