Brain state locks silent memories in a trained fly connectome
- 1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Otolaryngology Research Center, and Institute of Nephrology, Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Medical University, Zhanjiang,
Abstract
Complete connectomes now exist for insect nervous systems, but whether a fixed wiring diagram can learn, and what its memories consist of, is unknown. Here, we trained a spiking model of the whole male Drosophila central nervous system, 167,106 neurons with fixed wiring, to plan moves and to remember a visual cue. Spikes write the cue into neuronal adaptation, which holds it silently until the next input reads it out. Cells that hold the trace are enriched for transcripts of a calcium-activated potassium channel in fly cell atlases. The learned readout recalls the trace only in the brain state of learning: the same trace evokes a different response at another delay, and a disease-like loss of potassium current rewrites the trace and changes how it is read. Learning in the new state is spared. Memory failure can arise from a change of state rather than a loss of storage.
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BibTeX
@misc{wang2026brain,
title = {{Brain state locks silent memories in a trained fly connectome}},
author = {H. Wang and J. P. S. Yeong and Y. Zhao and Y. Zhao and Z. Yu and X. Liu and R. He and H. Chen and T. Liu and Y. Tian and W. Chen and Y. Cai and Y. Xu and H. Ning and X. Hou and L. Pang and D. Jiang and H. Liu and J. Hao and C. Tian},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.24.761586},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.24.761586v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Brain state locks silent memories in a trained fly connectome
AU - H. Wang
AU - J. P. S. Yeong
AU - Y. Zhao
AU - Y. Zhao
AU - Z. Yu
AU - X. Liu
AU - R. He
AU - H. Chen
AU - T. Liu
AU - Y. Tian
AU - W. Chen
AU - Y. Cai
AU - Y. Xu
AU - H. Ning
AU - X. Hou
AU - L. Pang
AU - D. Jiang
AU - H. Liu
AU - J. Hao
AU - C. Tian
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/24
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.24.761586
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.24.761586v1
AB - Complete connectomes now exist for insect nervous systems, but whether a fixed wiring diagram can learn, and what its memories consist of, is unknown. Here, we trained a spiking model of the whole male Drosophila central nervous system, 167,106 neurons with fixed wiring, to plan moves and to remember a visual cue. Spikes write the cue into neuronal adaptation, which holds it silently until the next input reads it out. Cells that hold the trace are enriched for transcripts of a calcium-activated potassium channel in fly cell atlases. The learned readout recalls the trace only in the brain state of learning: the same trace evokes a different response at another delay, and a disease-like loss of potassium current rewrites the trace and changes how it is read. Learning in the new state is spared. Memory failure can arise from a change of state rather than a loss of storage.
ER -