A new study published in Nature titled, “Distributed control circuits across a brain-and-cord connectome”, describes a complete wiring diagram of all the connections between neurons in the central nervous system of an adult fruit fly for translational applications.
The work was completed by an international team led by multiple labs at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Princeton University. The team has made the entire connectome accessible online to propel research into complex behaviors and other fundamentals of the nervous system.
The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, offers an effective model as they are easy to breed and maintain in the lab. Despite having a relatively simple nervous system made up of around 160,000 neurons, they exhibit complex behaviors such as navigation, social interaction, learning, and responding to sensory cues.
To build the connectome, the team used electron microscopy to produce millions of images of neurons and neural connections. AI tools aligned the images into a cohesive 3D map.
“It is really important to have a central nervous system connectome that is as complete as possible so we can link up the brain and body and start thinking about behavior holistically,” said Wei-Chung Allen Lee, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology at HMS and co-corresponding author on the study.
The connectome shows how each neuron connects in the brain and nerve cord at the synapse level. While the map doesn’t span the fly’s entire body, the team used identifiable neurons and literature review to connect the central nervous system to neurons in appendages and sensory organs.
The authors have already used the connectome to explore motor control. While a longstanding idea in neuroscience is for a centralized controller in the brain to make decisions about actions, the authors discovered that motor control in the fruit fly mostly occurs at a local level. For example, movement of a fly’s leg is primarily controlled by the neural circuits for that leg. The local circuits for one leg then communicates with other appendages to carry out complex coordinated movements, such as walking.
“The brain and nerve cord connectomes are each useful on their own, but until you can bridge the two, it’s hard to understand how information moves between the brain and the body,” said co-first author Helen Yang, PhD, a research fellow in neurobiology at HMS.
Looking ahead, the researchers plan to add more information to the connectome, including data describing neuropeptides, molecules that support neuron communication. Insights from the connectome may reveal fundamental principles about how nervous systems operate across species, including in humans.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is often misunderstood as a condition involving excessive cleanliness, organization, or ritualistic behavior. In reality, OCD is a complex mental health disorder characterized by intrusive thoughts, unwanted images, fears, and compulsive behaviors intended to reduce anxiety. One of the least understood and most painful aspects of OCD occurs when intrusive thoughts intersect with sexuality, creating a profound sense of shame, confusion, and isolation.
Sexuality is already a deeply personal aspect of human identity. Many people grow up receiving messages, whether from family, religion, culture, or society, that certain thoughts, desires, or identities are inappropriate or unacceptable. When OCD enters this landscape, it can weaponize these fears and vulnerabilities. Intrusive thoughts often target what a person values most or fears most. As a result, individuals with OCD may experience unwanted sexual thoughts that feel completely inconsistent with their values, identity, or desires.
Someone with OCD may become trapped in relentless questioning: “What if I am attracted to someone I shouldn’t be attracted to?” “What if these thoughts mean something about who I really am?” “What if I am secretly a bad person?” These questions are not driven by genuine desire but by overwhelming anxiety and uncertainty. Nevertheless, the individual often feels compelled to seek reassurance, analyze their reactions, or avoid situations that trigger distress.
The shame surrounding sexuality intensifies this struggle. Society frequently treats sexual thoughts as reflections of character rather than recognizing that thoughts can occur without intent, desire, or meaning. For people with OCD, this misunderstanding can be devastating. Many become terrified that simply having an intrusive thought makes them immoral, dangerous, or fundamentally flawed. As a result, they often suffer in silence, afraid that disclosing their thoughts will lead to judgment or rejection.
The intersection of OCD and sexuality can affect people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Some individuals experience obsessions centered on questioning their sexual orientation, regardless of whether they identify as heterosexual, gay, bisexual, or otherwise. Others experience intrusive thoughts involving taboo or unwanted sexual scenarios. In each case, the distress comes not from the thoughts themselves but from the meaning the individual fears those thoughts represent.
This experience is particularly challenging because shame thrives in secrecy. The more a person attempts to suppress, analyze, or eliminate intrusive thoughts, the stronger and more persistent those thoughts often become. OCD feeds on certainty-seeking, convincing individuals that if they can just think hard enough or find enough reassurance, they will finally feel safe. Unfortunately, the cycle rarely ends that way.
Recovery begins when individuals learn to separate intrusive thoughts from identity and intention. Evidence-based treatments such as Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) help people tolerate uncertainty and reduce compulsive responses. Through treatment, many discover that thoughts are not actions, urges are not intentions, and anxiety is not evidence. They learn that having an intrusive thought says far less about their character than the courage it takes to face that thought without engaging in compulsions.
Understanding the intersectionality of OCD and sexual shame requires compassion, education, and nuance. It demands that we challenge cultural assumptions about thoughts and morality while recognizing the unique suffering OCD can create. When people understand that intrusive thoughts are a symptom of a disorder rather than a reflection of character, shame begins to lose its power.
Ultimately, healing occurs not when every intrusive thought disappears, but when individuals no longer measure their worth by the thoughts that enter their minds. By replacing shame with understanding and fear with self-compassion, people living with OCD can reclaim both their mental health and their sense of identity.
<![CDATA[Phase 2 depression trial shows ALTO-203 boosts attention, EEG theta-beta ratio and alertness, pointing to biomarker-guided dosing and precision psychiatry.]]>
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<![CDATA[Explore 2026’s fast-moving psych med pipeline: new Alzheimer agitation option, potential novel ADHD therapy, and promising psilocybin for depression.]]>
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
David Sinclair plans to test whole-body rejuvenation drugs in the XPrize competition
The outspoken longevity scientist David Sinclair has predicted that, one day, you’ll go to the doctor and get a prescription that will make you 10 years younger. MIT Technology Review has learned of his latest step toward this: human tests of a “reprogramming” drug.
Sinclair, a biologist at Harvard Medical School, plans to launch the tests in a $101 million competition organized by the XPrize Foundation. The winners will “restore” a person to an earlier apparent age, as measured by improvements in immune, cognitive, and muscle function.
The grand prize goes to any team able to show a 10-year (or greater) relative improvement after one year of treatment.
At SXSW London last week, I gave a talk called “Five things you need to know about AI,” in which I shared what I think are the biggest themes in AI right now.
I pulled a few things from our first AI10 list, an annual guide to the top trends in this buzzy world, but I also veered off on several tangents. In my half-hour slot, I tried to cover the key talking points that I think help to make sense of what’s going on in tech—and thus the economy—today.
Five key thoughts emerged: AI is everywhere all at once, it’s getting scary, a backlash is growing, it’s becoming a big deal for science—and I didn’t even need to show up at the talk. Read the full story for all the details.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 OpenAI has confidentially filed for a US IPO The listing could come as early as September. (Reuters $) + OpenAI is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion. (Financial Times $) + The IPO will test investor appetite for AI companies. (WSJ $) + The move follows IPO filings from Anthropic and SpaceX. (CNN)
2 The US claims BYD, Baidu, Alibaba, and others are aiding China’s military The Pentagon added them to a list of military-linked companies. (WSJ $) + The designations limit their operations in the US. (BBC) + The new additions also include humanoid firm Unitree. (TechCrunch) + The Pentagon is adapting to China’s tech rise. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Apple’s long-awaited AI overhaul of Siri is finally here “Siri AI” promises to be a more conversational assistant. (NYT $) + It includes a standalone app and screen-reading features. (Reuters $) + And arrives after two years of repeated delays. (Axios)
4 The White House and Congress are working to limit state AI laws A new deal would curb state rules for federal legislation. (Axios) + AI regulation has divided US politicians. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Meta is launching a “workforce academy” for building data centers The five-week program is free of charge and guarantees a job. (WSJ $) + It arrives shortly after Meta laid off 8,000 employees. (NPR) 6 Taiwan is mulling curbs on AI chip exports to China The new controls would further align with US restrictions. (Bloomberg $) + Future AI chips could be built on glass. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Meta has quietly removed face-recognition code from its smart glasses app The code identified by investigators has disappeared. (Wired $)
8 Humanoid robots are edging towards the battlefield American and Chinese militaries are pursuing the tech. (BBC)
9 The world’s first wind-powered underwater data center has launched It uses less power and water than land-based equivalents. (Guardian)
10 You could get some benefits of sleep without having to nod off If new brain stimulation works as well on humans as on mice, that is. (New Scientist $)
Quote of the day
“You’re on the train, but you know that there’s no destination.”
—Clara Shih, a former top AI executive at Salesforce and Meta, tells the New York Times that AI training can’t keep up with the field’s advances.
One More Thing
ILLUSTRATIONS BY AMRITA MARINO
Inside the race to make human sex cells in the lab
An embryo forms when sperm meets egg. But what if we could start with other cells—if a blood sample or skin biopsy could be transformed into “artificial” sperm and eggs? What if those were all you needed to make a baby?
That’s the promise of a radical approach to reproduction. Scientists have already created artificial eggs and sperm from mouse cells and used them to create mouse pups. Artificial human sex cells are next.
The advances could herald the end of infertility, but they raise major scientific and ethical challenges.
You can follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for reading!
—Thomas
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<![CDATA[How social determinants and care gaps drive schizophrenia relapse—strategies to boost adherence, coordination, and follow-up after hospitalization.]]>
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<![CDATA[Poorly managed schizophrenia fuels relapse, homelessness and caregiver strain—new data shows most costs are indirect, making prevention and LAIs pivotal.]]>
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<![CDATA[Poor schizophrenia control drives relapse, homelessness and caregiver strain; data show $367B burden—why relapse prevention and LAIs matter.]]>
As adoption of AI agents looks set to surge by as much as 300% in the next two years, leadership teams are carefully considering the implications of a hybrid human-AI workforce.
Unlike existing enterprise-level automation that relies on manual input, AI agents are capable of autonomously coordinating complex tasks, interacting with multiple tools and environments across an organization. In early applications that center on customer service, HR, and sales, adoption of agentic AI has led to productivity gains of 30-50%.
Their autonomy positions agents more as collaborators than tools, working side-by-side with human employees in blended teams that look poised to upend traditional workplace dynamics.
More than three-quarters of HR leaders believe that the deployment of AI agents will transform existing workplace norms, driving a complete reappraisal of how roles and responsibilities are distributed, how skills are prioritized, and how workplace culture is shaped.
Though many admit they’re in the early or preparatory phase of this shift, 86% of chief HR officers predict that navigating digital labor shaped by agentic AI will be a central component of their role in the years ahead.
Fluency in the change management aspect of agentic AI adoption will be a crucial differentiator when it comes to unlocking the full potential of the technology going forward, believes Ateet Jayaswal, chief culture and employee experience officer at Wipro, a leading technology services and consulting company. This moment is one that he says, “calls for a mindset shift in how HR leaders would enable their organizations.”
Redeploying roles to enable higher-value work
As AI agents assume ownership of more complex and integral tasks, the distribution of roles and responsibilities within an organization will undergo significant change. It’s estimated that three-quarters of current roles will require redesign, reskilling, or redeployment by 2030 as a result of agentic AI.
For leadership, this shift should be about reskilling employees toward higher-value work in order to optimize the potential of an agent-human hybrid workforce, says Jayaswal.
For example, Wipro is a complex organization of 240,000 employees across 65 countries. It previously had multiple policies, documents, and knowledge fragmented across different systems, which delayed response to employee queries.
But the company has recently integrated a custom agentic AI assistant—an agent co-created in partnership with enterprise agentic AI platform Ema Unlimited—that can swiftly navigate this complex system, assuming responsibility for 50 HR tasks that had previously fallen to human employees. With the help of an AI agent, average response time to queries has lowered from 48 hours to five seconds.
Human employees have more time to focus on work “that requires a creative and imaginative mind and cross-functional collaboration, leveraging diverse ideas and thoughts to problem-solve,” says Jayaswal. The AI agent, meanwhile, handles rote administrative tasks like sorting timesheets or helping employees navigate policies and take actions in the flow of work.
When reallocating employee responsibilities, though, it is imperative that humans remain in the loop, Jayaswal caveats. When agentic AI is incorporated into enterprise technology, it must work with sensitive and personal data and therefore needs even more stringent guardrails and constraints than consumer applications. “When you expose an AI agent to organizational data, when you integrate it into multiple enterprise systems, then pathways around the AI agent become extremely important,” he says. “It’s an evolving space that leadership needs to have front-of-mind.” Governance should include robust data privacy rules and the establishment of governance layers, such as an AI council, he suggests.
At a fundamental level, the adoption of AI agents will force a re-evaluation of human roles, believes Jayaswal. Rather than employees primarily performing repetitive tasks or troubleshooting, a significant proportion of their time will shift to designing, teaching, and optimizing an AI agent that can do this work for them with far greater speed and predictability and without the agent getting bored.
“The nature of your job changes from being the hero who comes in to solve the problem to designing the hero who can solve the problem,” he summarizes. “The individuals who I have seen thrive in this environment are the ones who make this shift.”
An evolving employee skillset
Just as roles and responsibilities will be reconfigured to reflect the input of AI agents, the core skills of human employees will be reprioritized. More than four in five HR leaders say they’re planning to reskill workers to become more competitive in a market shaped by AI agents.
Technical skills will be increasingly important. Leading employers such as Salesforce, Danone, and Walmart are already rolling out dedicated AI and digital skills programs that aim to equip everyone from frontline workers to C-suite executives with a baseline level of AI literacy in response to the pervasiveness of the technology.
But desirable soft skills will also evolve, Jayaswal points out. Employees who assign tasks to an AI agent need to plainly articulate what modular steps may be needed to accomplish a task, what the desired outcome should be, and what parameters or guardrails need to be in place to ensure the agent doesn’t access or share confidential data.
As HR executives adapt to a blended workforce, three skills are emerging as top priorities during recruitment, according to a recent survey: relationship building, like forging constructive partnerships and account management; collaboration; and adaptability.
Maintaining a healthy workplace culture
In freeing up human employees to focus on higher-value tasks, the hope is that AI agents can elevate the employee experience, deepening fulfilment and satisfaction in the workplace.
“At Wipro, our vision is to improve the life of Wiproites,” says Jayaswal. “We are taking away non-value added work by embracing modern ways of collaborating, engaging, and transacting, leaving associates with higher order work content.”
But leadership teams embracing agentic AI will also need to plan for the new pressures and stressors that the technology can place on a workforce.
There is already confusion and knowledge gaps, with 73% of HR leaders reporting their employees don’t yet understand how digital labor will impact their work. Many organizations have opted to define AI agents as teammates or colleagues on org charts, but new research says this could erode trust and a sense of professional identity. It also raises new questions around accountability and ownership.
The role of management in addressing these concerns is critical, says Jayaswal. To maintain healthy dynamics, managers need to become skilled at orchestrating blended systems, splitting their focus between supervising AI agents and motivating human employees as they also build and supervise AI agents.
Upgrading employee well-being programs will be a core part of maintaining a robust workplace culture. “As there are more interactions with AI agents, you are losing some of the human touch that was provided by service delivery partners or leaders, or often even by colleagues and peers,” Jayaswal says. Employee services that encourage social connection and empathetic communication may help teams navigate this.
A breakneck transformation
Agentic AI looks set to scale at breakneck speed across many enterprises, and it will significantly transform how these organizations operate.
Carefully considering and deciding how to adapt to this newly blended workforce is now a top priority for leadership teams. Reviewing and refining organizational strategies is essential for optimizing both technological gains and the employee experience.
This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Review’s editorial staff. It was researched, designed, and written by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. This includes the writing of surveys and collection of data for surveys. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review.
