Human brains and fruit fly brains are built similarly – visualizing how helps researchers better understand how both work

This article is from a great researcher using tools to map out functional networks in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster. This fruit fly is a model organism which has provided a wealth of information on numerous genetic, physiological, and neural processes. We're getting to the point now that we can label specific neurons in the brain and use markers to see the networks they reside in. Some of Dr. Scaplen's work has been looking at ways of modeling alcohol use disorder in fruit flies to understand how the neural circuitry shifts from aversion towards alcohol to a preference for it.