The work has already borne fruit. Armed with the diagram, researchers have discovered “interrogator” neurons that appear to combine diverse types of information, and “broadcasters” that may send out signals to coordinate activity across different neural circuits. A specific neural circuit that, when triggered, causes fruit flies to stop in their tracks while walking, was also spotted.

In a foretaste of what is to come, researchers used the wiring diagram, known as the connectome, to build a computer simulation of part of the fly brain. Experiments with the simulation led them to identify neural circuits used to process taste, suggesting that future simulations can shed further light on how brain wiring gives rise to animal behaviour.

“Connectomics is the beginning of a digital transformation of neuroscience … and this transformation will extend to brain simulation,” Seung said. “This is going to be a rapid acceleration of the way in which we do neuroscience.”