Despite its tiny size, the fruitf ly brain is staggeringly intricate. So teasing apart how it remembers things — even a simple line pattern — is a daunting task. Progress is being made, thanks to genetic innovations. Neuroscientists these days have a satisfactory understanding of how individual neurons work and of how they communicate with their immediate neighbours. By contrast, under-standing at the next level of organization is hazier; for example, how neurons form func-tional circuits, how these circuits encode behaviour and particularly how experience changes the activity and connectivity in cir-cuits to alter behaviour.
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