Mammalian Connectomics: neuronal network maps

The brain’s complex neuronal communication network, its connectome, has to be considered a crucial basis for the brain’s impressive performance. Only in recent years, the partial mapping of connectomes has become possible in mammalian brains: MPG-researchers W. Denk and M. Helmstaedter succeeded in mapping the local connectome of mouse retina. The newly established department of connectomics will now focus on connectomic mapping of the cerebral cortex to understand how sensory experience is combined with novel sensory input for the detection and classification of objects in the environment.