Scientists just finished the first-ever 3D map showing every single type of brain cell across an entire animal's nervous system.

March 25, 2026

Original Paper

Nervous system-wide single-cell morphology atlas of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in larval zebrafish

Du, X.; Yue, Z.; Chen, M.; Li, W.; Chen, T.; Hu, H.; Wan, H.; Zhao, T.; Zhong, Y.; Ning, X.; Zheng, X.; Ren, H.; Wang, R.; Zhao, R.; Peng, X.; Jia, Z.; Chen, L.; Jin, C.; Huang, J.; Deng, W.; Qian, L.; Wang, L.; Zheng, M.; Zhang, W.; Shen, X.; Shen, X.; Qiu, X.; Zhao, Q.; Li, D.; Wang, S.; Gong, Y.; Li, Y.; Mu, Y.; Ji, P.; He, J.; Wang, Y.; Du, J.

bioRxiv · 2025.06.06.658008

AI-generated illustration

The Takeaway

While previous whole-brain maps were limited to simple organisms like worms, this atlas captures the 3D shapes and connections of over 20,000 neurons across the entire body of a zebrafish. It provides the first complete 'wiring diagram' showing how excitatory and inhibitory cells are organized to control a complex vertebrate animal.

From the abstract

Single-neuron morphology mapping is fundamental for deciphering brain architecture and function, yet in vertebrates it remains limited in spatial coverage and cell-type information. Here we present a nervous system-wide single-neuron morphology atlas of larval zebrafish with annotated excitatory/inhibitory identity and dendrite-axon polarity. The atlas comprises >20,000 reconstructed neurons from >13,400 animals, spanning the central and peripheral nervous system and representing ~24.5% of the t

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