Talk Title: Insights into vision from interpreting a neuronal wiring diagram

Abstract: In 2023, the FlyWire Consortium released the neuronal wiring diagram of an adult fly brain. This contains as a corollary the first complete wiring diagram of a visual system, which has been used to identify all 200+ cell types that are intrinsic to the Drosophila optic lobe. About half of these cell types were previously unknown, and less than 20% have ever been recorded by a physiologist. I will argue that plausible functions for many cell types can be guessed by interpreting the wiring diagram.

Bio: Sebastian Seung is Professor at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute and Department of Computer Science. Seung has done influential research in both computer science and neuroscience. Over the past decade, he helped pioneer the new field of connectomics, developing machine learning and social computing technologies for reconstructing neural circuits from high resolution brain images. His lab created EyeWire, a site that has recruited over 150,000 players from 130 countries to a game to map neural connections. Seung is also known for his efforts to communicate neuroscience to the general public. His TED Talk "I am my connectome" has more than 750,000 views, and has been translated into 26 languages.  His book Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are was chosen by the Wall Street Journal as Top Ten Nonfiction of 2012. Before joining the Princeton faculty in 2014, Seung studied at Harvard University, worked at Bell Laboratories, and taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He is an External Member of the Max Planck Society, and winner of the 2008 Ho-Am Prize in Engineering.