Wire a Fly Clock
Explore the real brain of a fruit fly. Find the neurons that run its body clock, then test which wires between them really exist.
Why this matters
Alfonsi V, Scarpelli S, Gorgoni M, Pazzaglia M, Giannini AM, De Gennaro L. Sleep-related problems in night shift nurses: towards an individualized interventional practice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2021;15:644570.
Kamdar BB, Martin JL, Needham DM, Ong MK. Promoting sleep to improve delirium in the ICU. Critical Care Medicine. 2016;44(12):2290-2291.
Why a nursing student cares about a fly's clock
- Sleep and body-clock biology is shared across species. A review of fly sleep concludes its regulating principles are largely conserved from flies to mammals (Shafer & Keene, 2021). So the fly is a model, not a patient.
- On the wards, sleepiness is one of the most common complaints of night-shift nurses, and it is linked to reduced alertness and decision-making (Alfonsi et al., 2021).
- In intensive care, patients' sleep is broken up by alarms, bright lights and care tasks. Whether protecting sleep prevents delirium is still unsettled (Kamdar et al., 2016).
References
Shafer OT, Keene AC. The regulation of Drosophila sleep. Current Biology. 2021;31(1):R38-R49.Alfonsi V, Scarpelli S, Gorgoni M, Pazzaglia M, Giannini AM, De Gennaro L. Sleep-related problems in night shift nurses: towards an individualized interventional practice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2021;15:644570.
Kamdar BB, Martin JL, Needham DM, Ong MK. Promoting sleep to improve delirium in the ICU. Critical Care Medicine. 2016;44(12):2290-2291.
Clock neurons
In-between neurons
Dopamine / hormone cells
Wire game: green = real wire, red dashed = not in this fly.
Plain-language glossary
- Neuron
- A brain cell that sends signals to other cells.
- Synapse
- The tiny contact point where one neuron passes a signal to the next. More synapses means a stronger link.
- Connectome
- A complete wiring diagram of a brain, built by imaging it slice by slice.
- Cell body (soma)
- The round part of a neuron. The 3D dots mark cell bodies, not the full branching shape.
- Neuron type
- A group of look-alike neurons, usually one set on each side of the brain.
- Clock neurons
- Neurons that keep the fly's roughly 24-hour rhythm, which shapes when it sleeps and wakes.
- Predicted transmitter
- The chemical a neuron probably uses (acetylcholine excites, GABA usually inhibits, glutamate varies). A computer guesses it from images, so treat it as a clue.