A groundbreaking study has resulted in the creation of the largest functional map of a brain to date, utilizing a genetically modified mouse that watched clips from popular films like 'The Matrix' and 'Star Wars'.

Artificial intelligence played a key role in tracing the wiring of the neurons, allowing for individual identification of connections, with the total wiring estimated to exceed five kilometers in length.

Researchers have drawn comparisons between this foundational work and the Human Genome Project, hoping it will lead to significant breakthroughs in understanding and treating brain diseases.

Findings indicated that inhibitory neurons can target specific distant cells rather than just nearby ones, suggesting a more intricate network of neural inhibition than previously understood.

The research traced communication between neurons through 500 million junctions known as synapses, offering valuable insights into brain function.

The team recorded activity from 76,000 neurons in the occipital lobe, which is crucial for visual processing, and examined the anatomical features of these brain cells using an electron microscope.

The connectome revealed that neurons that activate together can form connections over longer distances, providing new insights into the complex wiring of the brain.

This ambitious project, part of the MICrONS initiative, involved over 150 scientists from various U.S. institutions and was published in the journal Nature on April 9, 2025.

To reconstruct the neural connections in 3D, the researchers sliced the brain tissue into over 25,000 thin layers and captured nearly 100 million high-resolution images.

The dataset is publicly available for global scientific research, which could enhance understanding of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis.

Despite its size, the dataset is incomplete, with some neurons missing and orphan extensions detected, indicating the need for further manual verification and refinement.

The machine learning algorithm used in the study mapped 200,000 cells and 523 million synaptic connections, making this connectome three times larger than that of a human brain segment.