@article {70047,
	title = {Distributed control circuits across a brain-and-cord connectome},
	journal = {Nature},
	year = {2026},
	month = {2026 Jun 08},
	abstract = {<p>ust as genomes revolutionized molecular genetics, connectomes (maps of neurons and synapses) are transforming neuroscience. To date, the only organisms with complete connectomes are worms1-3, sea squirts4, and comb jellies5\&nbsp;(103-104\&nbsp;synapses). By contrast, the fruit fly is more complex (108\&nbsp;synaptic connections), with a brain that supports learning and spatial memory6,7\&nbsp;and an intricate ventral nerve cord analogous to the vertebrate spinal cord8-12. Here we report the first densely-reconstructed adult fly connectome that unites the brain and ventral nerve cord, and we leverage this resource to investigate principles of neural control. We show that effector neurons (motor neurons, endocrine cells, and efferent neurons targeting the viscera) are primarily influenced by sensory neurons in the same body part, forming local feedback loops. These local loops are linked by long-range circuits involving ascending and descending neurons organized into behavior-centric modules. Single ascending and descending neurons are often positioned to influence the voluntary movements of multiple body parts, together with the endocrine cells or visceral organs that support those movements. Brain regions involved in learning and navigation supervise these circuits. These results reveal an architecture that is distributed, parallelized, and embodied, reminiscent of distributed control architectures in engineered systems13,14.</p>
},
	doi = {10.1038/s41586-026-10735-w},
	url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10735-w},
	author = {Bates, Alexander Shakeel and Phelps, Jasper S. and Kim, Minsu and Yang, Helen H. and Matsliah, Arie and Ajabi, Zaki and Perlman, Eric and Delgado, Kevin M. and Osman, Mohammed Abdal Monium and Salmon, Christopher K. and Gager, Jay and Silverman, Benjamin and Renauld, Sophia and Collie, Matthew F. and Fan, Jingxuan and Pacheco, Diego A. and Zhao, Yunzhi and Patel, Janki and Zhang, Wenyi and Serratosa Capdevilla, Laia and Roberts, Ruair{\'\i} J.V. and Munnelly, Eva J. and Griggs, Nina and Langley, Helen and Moya-Llamas, Borja and Maloney, Ryan T. and Yu, Szi-Chieh and Sterling, Amy R. and Sorek, Marissa and Kruk, Krzysztof and Serafetinidis, Nikitas and Dhawan, Serene and St{\"u}rner, Tomke and Klemm, Finja and Brooks, Paul and Lesser, Ellen and Jones, Jessica M. and Pierce-Lundgren, Sara E. and Lee, Su-Yee and Luo, Yichen and Cook, Andrew P. and McKim, Theresa H. and Kophs, Emily C. and Falt, Tjalda and Negr{\'o}n Morales, Alexa M. and Burke, Austin and Hebditch, James and Willie, Kyle P. and Willie, Ryan and Popovych, Sergiy and Kemnitz, Nico and Ih, Dodam and Lee, Kisuk and Lu, Ran and Halageri, Akhilesh and Bae, J. Alexander and Jourdan, Ben and Schwartzman, Gregory and Demarest, Damian D. and Behnke, Emily and Bland, Doug and Kristiansen, Anne and Skelton, Jaime and Stocks, Tom and Garner, Dustin and Salman, Farzaan and Daly, Kevin C. and Hernandez, Anthony and Kumar, Sandeep and The BANC-FlyWire Consortium and Dorkenwald, Sven and Collman, Forrest and Suver, Marie P. and Fenk, Lisa M. and Pankratz, Michael J. and Jefferis, Gregory S.X.E. and Eichler, Katharina and Seeds, Andrew M. and Hampel, Stefanie and Agrawal, Sweta and Zandawala, Meet and Macrina, Thomas and Adjavon, Diane-Yayra and Funke, Jan and Tuthill, John C. and Azevedo, Anthony and Seung, H. Sebastian and de Bivort, Benjamin L. and Murthy, Mala and Drugowitsch, Jan and Wilson, Rachel I. and Lee, Wei-Chung Allen}
}
