COMPUTATIONAL NEUROBIOLOGYFlyWire v783
FlyHamlet — Connectome Workstation
Whole-brain model / Live simulation

FlyHamlet

A fruit-fly brain at the keyboard.

139,255neurons
15.1 Mconnected pairs

01 Behavioral arena

Loading brain wiring
TYPEWRITER 90 × 30 mm / 27 regions
Loading the full connectome…
90 × 30 mm · 27 key regionsCurrent key
Preparing live simulation0.00 s simulated
Starting new sessionspace to pause

Manuscript output

TXT
FLYHAMLET / TRANSCRIPTIn progress

A letter is typed when the fly enters a new key region while in contact with the keyboard.

New session resets the brain and starts with a fresh random seed. Speed depends on your device.

02 Neural activity monitor

spikes simulated
Left eye0.0 HzLooming input
Right eye0.0 HzLooming input
Left turn0.0 HzDNa02 + DNa01
Right turn0.0 HzDNa02 + DNa01
Giant fiber0.0 HzEscape / takeoff drive
Speed · turn8.0 mm/s · 0°/sDecoded motion
Signal trace / Hz20 s window
LeftRightGiant fiberSolid: looming / Dashed: turning neurons
03 Experiment notes & methods

The live session computes a fresh run of the full FlyWire v783 connectome: 139,255 neurons and 15,091,983 connected pairs. Neurons use the repository’s leaky integrate-and-fire model at 0.1 ms steps. Letters are assigned to the 90 × 30 mm arena’s 3 × 9 grid by a seeded permutation. Saved 300-second recordings remain available in the session menu.

The brain model supplies descending-neuron motor commands. Giant-fiber escape activity can start the downstream wing motor; an asynchronous 175–225 Hz wing oscillator then generates repeated strokes, and stroke velocity produces the lift and thrust that change x, y and z. DNa02 + DNa01 bias left/right wing force for turning. On the keyboard, DNp09/MDN locomotor drive sets an alternating modified-tripod leg oscillator; stance legs generate ground traction while swing legs reposition. The downstream plant represents VNC, muscle and body mechanics missing from the brain connectome and never selects a key or destination.

Randomness comes from injected Poisson sensory inputs. The connectome turns that activity into motor commands; deterministic wing and leg mechanics turn those commands into movement. A key is typed only on keyboard contact. The renderer uses the simulated wing phase, gait phase, altitude and attitude directly, including exposure-style wing blur at flight frequencies too fast for a display to resolve frame by frame.