This tiny fish could help decode the brain

One of the world’s top brain science centres is making a huge bet on a tiny transparent fish.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus is expanding its research into Danionella, a small fish that could help scientists understand how the brain controls complex behaviours such as socialising, memory and decision-making.

The fish is useful because researchers can see its brain working in real time.

Unlike many lab animals, Danionella has see-through skin and does not have the top part of its skull, giving scientists a rare look at brain activity as it happens.

Very convenient. Slightly rude to every other skull, but useful.

Janelia plans to triple its fish research space to 6,000 square feet and increase the number of scientists working on Danionella from around 10 to more than 100.

The goal is to study the whole brain, not just small sections of it.

That creates a major data problem. Adult Danionella have around 650,000 neurons, which is far more than the fruit flies Janelia has studied before.

Researchers believe AI will be needed to analyse the huge amount of brain activity produced by these experiments.

The long-term aim is to understand how brain activity turns into behaviour.

Scientists hope to study the fish while they swim freely, rather than keeping them still in a lab setting.

This could help explain behaviours such as schooling, where fish move together as a group.

It is still early work, and researchers say it could take years to understand even one complex behaviour properly.

But if it works, this tiny fish could help answer some very big questions about how brains function.

Keep them neurons moisturised, y’all. - MG