[Verse 1] Deep beneath the microscope's electric eye Serial sections cut so thin they barely cry Electron beams reveal what light cannot Every synapse mapped, every connection caught The retina was first to bare its soul Circuit diagrams made beautifully whole [Chorus] Wire by wire, we trace the brain's design Connectomics shows us every line From electron scopes to tracers in the stream Mapping out the visual processing dream Structure tells us where the signals flow But not the secrets of what they truly know [Verse 2] MICrONS took a cubic millimeter slice Mouse visual cortex paid the ultimate price Hundred thousand cells with functional light Two-photon recordings burning laser bright Structure plus function in perfect dance Ground truth wiring gets its only chance [Chorus] Wire by wire, we trace the brain's design Connectomics shows us every line From electron scopes to tracers in the stream Mapping out the visual processing dream Structure tells us where the signals flow But not the secrets of what they truly know [Verse 3] Inject the tracers, anterograde they crawl Retrograde pathways answer anatomy's call Felleman and Van Essen drew the map Hierarchical connections bridge the gap Markov and Kennedy weighted every thread Quantified the paths where vision signals spread [Verse 4] C. elegans showed us the way to start Three hundred neurons mapped from every part Complete connectome of a nervous mind First full wiring diagram of its kind But complexity scales beyond our dreams When mammalian circuits burst the seams [Bridge] Diffusion MRI in living human brain White matter bundles dancing through the rain Coarse resolution but the streams shine through What connects to what, we finally knew Dorsal, ventral pathways carved in white Tractography reveals the visual flight [Chorus] Wire by wire, we trace the brain's design Connectomics shows us every line From electron scopes to tracers in the stream Mapping out the visual processing dream Structure tells us where the signals flow But not the secrets of what they truly know [Chorus] Wire by wire, we trace the brain's design Connectomics shows us every line From electron scopes to tracers in the stream Mapping out the visual processing dream Structure tells us where the signals flow But not the secrets of what they truly know [Outro] The wiring diagram's just the start we find Computation hides behind each neural bind Connectomics builds the foundation strong For understanding how perception flows along
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