GoKawiilGoogle's Fruit Fly Brain Map Used to Make Simulated Insect Play Doom
Software engineer Alex Wormuth built a simulated fruit fly brain using Google and HHMI Janelia's newly released connectome data, then wired it to control Doom frame by frame. Each frame generates thousands of brightness and color inputs that feed into the simulated brain's 25.6 million connections, translating neural activity into in-game controls, including a pain response modeled on real dopamine receptors.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
This stunt shows how detailed connectome data—mapping every neuron and connection in a brain—can be repurposed by hobbyists to build functioning neural simulations outside the lab. It's a playful but telling demonstration of how open scientific datasets can accelerate unexpected experiments in AI and neuroscience alike, following Doom's long tradition as an unofficial benchmark for whether any system can process input and act.
- Google and HHMI Janelia mapped a male fruit fly's full brain, cataloging 166,000 neurons and 11,700 neuron types.
- A developer used that map to build a simulated fly brain that plays Doom by converting each frame into neural inputs.
- The simulation even models pain via dopamine receptors that influence real fruit fly hunger and aggression.
Doom Eternal (Nintendo Switch) — If reading about a fruit fly's brain running Doom reawakens the demon-slaying itch, Doom Eternal on Switch lets you rip and tear anywhere you go. It's the modern evolution of the 1993 classic that keeps finding its way onto absurd hardware, and it's a blast in handheld mode.
See Doom Eternal (Nintendo Switch) on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: cnet.com — Joe Hindy, 2026-09-13
Published there as: “The Latest Weird Thing to Play Doom Is the Mapped-Out Brain of a Fruit Fly”
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