From Pixels to Minds: Mapping & Understanding the Brain with AI

Enabled by advances in imaging and computer science, the past two decades have featured dramatic progress in the study of comprehensive synaptic-resolution maps of the nervous system. In this essay, we review these achievements and innovations but also argue that subsequent progress will be substantially driven by artificial intelligence. Specifically, we propose that AI is poised to revolutionize the study of brain wiring by: 1) helping to forge a new, functionally grounded definition of “understanding” the brain; 2) enabling sophisticated simulations and predictive models of neural circuits; and 3) identifying subtle connectomic “fingerprints” of neurological and psychiatric diseases. We envision a future in which the joint contributions of connectomics and AI not only decipher the brain's subtle wiring but also unlock novel avenues for fundamental discovery and therapeutic intervention.