Fly Brain Wiring Diagram Used to Play DOOM Days After Release
These projects demonstrate how openly licensed scientific datasets can be repurposed for unintended applications immediately after release, even though the connectome does not replicate individual neuron properties or signal transmission faithfully.
Key Facts
- HHMI Janelia Research and Google Research published MaleCNS v1.0, a complete connectome of the male fruit fly's central nervous system, in the journal Cell on September 3, 2026.
- The dataset covers over 166,000 neurons and approximately 125 million synaptic connections across the central brain, optic lobes, and ventral nerve cord.
- Alex Wormuth, a Coinbase engineer, released a DOOM experiment on September 6 using MaleCNS v1.0, with about 3,000 attempts made and no confirmed learning of survival as of publication.
- Developer Jessica Paquette published a Super Mario 64 experiment using the same connectome on September 7, created through vibe coding with GPT-6 Astra.
- Developer lyra bubbles released a video of the connectome playing the rhythm game Beat Saber.
Reporting from 3 sources: Automaton, Game Spark, GIGAZINE.
On September 3, HHMI Janelia Research and Google Research published a paper in the journal Cell describing MaleCNS v1.0, a complete connectome of the male fruit fly's central nervous system. The dataset, covering over 166,000 neurons and approximately 125 million synaptic connections, was released publicly under a CC BY license. Within days, software engineers began using it to control video games. Alex Wormuth, an engineer at Coinbase, posted an experiment on September 6 in which a neural circuit model built from MaleCNS v1.0 receives visual input from DOOM's screen and maps neuron activity to controller operations. Damage taken in the game is sent as an artificial aversive stimulus to two PPL101 dopamine cells, testing whether the model can learn to survive. As of publication, about 3,000 attempts had been made with no confirmed extension of survival time. Developer Jessica Paquette published a similar Super Mario 64 experiment the following day, created through vibe coding using GPT-6 Astra. Neither simulation has cleared its game.
The MaleCNS v1.0 dataset was released on June 8, 2026, before the Cell paper formalized it in September. The research team divided neural tissue into thin sections, stitched together electron microscope images, and used AI developed by Google Research to identify and reconstruct neurons in 3D, with human experts correcting errors afterward.
The connectome covers the central brain, optic lobes, and ventral nerve cord, and includes 11,691 types of nerve cells. Researchers identified 262 cell types present only in males or only in females, and 114 cell types present in both sexes with different connection patterns. The mapping completes a pair of fruit fly connectomes, since the FlyWire consortium had previously published a female version.
Wormuth's DOOM experiment uses 3,335 R1-R6 visual neurons for brightness and 811 R8 visual neurons for color as inputs. Actions such as turning and shooting are assigned to specific descending neurons, a mapping set by the developer rather than derived from the fly's original motor functions. A separate Beat Saber experiment by developer lyra bubbles shows the simulated fly swinging two sabers with some mistakes. The DOOM source code is available on GitHub, and the neuron activity can be observed on the web.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 3 cited sources below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.