352 | Bing Brunton on Connecting the Connectome to the Body

/ Biology, Thinking / 5 Comments

The connectome is the wiring diagram of a brain, a big matrix that tells us what neurons talk to what other neurons. Understanding it is an important step to understanding how brains work, but a long way from the final answer. A big next step is understanding how neuronal circuits connect to and guide bodily behavior. Very recent work on mapping the fruit-fly connectome has brought us closer to that goal. I talk with neuroscientist Bing Brunton about the connectome, how we can study it to understand bodily motion in flies and other creatures, and where it's all taking us.

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Bing Wen Brunton received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Princeton University.. She is currently a Professor of Biology and the Richard & Joan Komen University Chair at the University of Washington, with affiliations at the eScience Institute for Data Science, the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and the Department of Applied Mathematics.

5 thoughts on “352 | Bing Brunton on Connecting the Connectome to the Body”

  1. Ted Farris

    Bing makes the very important point here that she believes that consciousness evolved in and with embodied biological organisms. She points out that every example of consciousness that science agrees on has been found in embodied biological organisms. No examples of consciousness have ever been found in any inanimate object. Consciousness is a huge evolutionary advantage for animals and helps them to survive and actualize their own biological, emotional, and group survival, reproductive and social and other interests. In fact, consciousness is such a huge evolutionary advantage that it is virtually impossible to conceive of an animal that lacks it. No one has ever identified an unconscious animal, and (notwithstanding Chalmers’ speculative zombies) unconscious animals are actually inconceivable, as they would have no mechanism for navigating their environment and getting around to finding food and mates.

  2. Sonali Sengupta

    Connectomes seem partly the key to species specific differences in the evolutionary ladder.
    Assuming that chimpanzees and humans share 98% of their dna- humans write poetry, do maths, science and design rockets unlike chimpanzees. However both humans and chimpanzees share characteristics of social bonding, rituals etc. Chimpanzees and humans could share connectomes, but the capability differences between them could be due to the flexibility of the connectomes or neural plasticity. Humans share 99.9% of their dna with each other yet they differ so much in their talents/abilities. Differing connectomes possibly shaped partly by the environment during development could play a role here.
    Reproductive isolation between species follows geographic isolation. Despite similar dna sequences differing connectomes shaped by differing environments could play a role in this.

  3. Howard Gary

    Since most of the cells in our body and brain have undergone change or have been replaced by other cells over the course of our lives how do we retain the feeling that we are the same person now that we have always been?
    Think of it like this:
    o A river is always made of new water, but it still keeps its shape.
    o A song played on different speakers is still the same song.
    o A computer can replace its hardware parts, but the software and data preserve identity.
    What actually stays the same?
    Your brain’s connectivity map (the “connectome”) neurons form stable networks that encode:
    o memories
    o habits
    o personality traits
    o emotional tendencies
    o your sense of “I”
    These networks don’t get replaced wholesale. They evolve, but they don’t reset.
    Philosophers have a name for this: the continuity of identity.
    You are the same person because your brain preserves the same ‘information pattern’, even if the material changes.
    This is the same logic behind why:
    o a ship with replaced planks is still the same ship (Ship of Theseus)
    o a computer with new hardware is still “your computer” if the data is intact
    A non-obvious insight
    You don’t feel like the same person because your body stays the same.
    You feel like the same person because ‘your brain is very good at telling a coherent story about the self’.
    The self is a narrative engine
    Even if the underlying biology refreshes, the story continues.
    Ref: Microsoft Copilot

  4. Andy

    After listening to this episode, I am now worried that if that long, long cell dies, I will not be able to know if I stubbed my toe.

  5. Aliki

    So fascinating this conversation and how you go about coarse graining areas and circuits in the human brain. Also intriguing the point about human reasoning and poor intuition when feedback circuits and recurrence. Is there a reference article? Also wouldn’t learning work with feedback of sorts though? But I also thought that it is true at a certain physical level – it’s easier to run point to point, or in a loop-circuit – but a D>B, C>A would be a rather strange movement?

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