It has long been appreciated that activity sculpts the formation of neuronal circuits in the mammalian brain. By contrast, in Drosophila it was generally thought that genetically hardwired mechanisms of development, mediated by cell recognition molecules, are sufficient to specify the connectome—the complex and stereotyped pattern of connections between neurons. Here, we consider recent findings that activity during development also contributes to circuit assembly in the fly. These observations suggest that activity is a fundamental aspect of brain development in general. They also highlight the opportunities to learn about the role of this phenomenon through the extensive Drosophila toolkit for examining circuit development, structure, and function.

长期以来人们一直认识到，活动可以雕刻哺乳动物大脑中神经元回路的形成。相比之下，在果蝇中，通常认为，由细胞识别分子介导的遗传上硬连线的发育机制足以确定连接体-神经元之间连接的复杂且定型的模式。在这里，我们考虑了最近的发现，即开发过程中的活动也有助于动态组装电路。这些观察表明，活动通常是大脑发育的基本方面。他们还强调了通过广泛的果蝇工具包来检查电路发展，结构和功能的机会，以了解这种现象的作用。