MouseLight Neuron AA0227

A vast neural tracing effort by a team of Janelia scientists has upped the number of fully-traced neurons in the mouse brain by a factor of 10. Researchers can now download and browse the data in three dimensions. <br>Inside the mouse brain, individual neurons zigzag across hemispheres, embroider branching patterns and, researchers have now discovered, can even spool out spindly fibers up to 45 centimeters long.<br>Scientists can see and explore these wandering neural traces in 3-D in the most detailed map of mouse brain wiring yet created. The map reconstructs the shape and position of more than 300 of the 70 million neurons in the mouse brain. Previous efforts to trace the path of individual neurons had topped out in the dozens. <br>The selectively-labeled neurons were mapped in an iterative process with two-photon microscopy. The brain is sliced in 200-micron sections and a few dozen neurons are labeled at a time and imaged. Each brain imaged yields about 50 terabytes of data, each containing mapped neurons which can be browsed via the NeuronBrowser application. Researchers interested in the complete raw data set should contact Janelia to discuss obtaining it via hardware transfer.

贾内利亚（Janelia）的科学家团队开展了一项大规模神经示踪研究，将小鼠大脑中已完全示踪的神经元数量增至原先的10倍。如今研究人员可下载并三维浏览该数据集。
在小鼠大脑中，单个神经元会在大脑半球间蜿蜒穿行，织就出精巧的分支结构；研究人员此次还发现，神经元甚至可延伸出长达45厘米的纤细纤维。
这是迄今最为精细的小鼠大脑连接图谱，科学家可通过三维视图观察并探索这些蜿蜒的神经示踪轨迹。该图谱重建了小鼠大脑7000万个神经元中超过300个的形态与位置。此前的单个神经元路径示踪研究，最多仅能完成数十个神经元的示踪工作。
研究团队通过双光子显微镜（two-photon microscopy）的迭代成像流程，对选择性标记的神经元进行了图谱绘制。具体流程为：将大脑切成200微米厚的脑切片，每次对数十个神经元进行标记并成像。每一份成像的大脑样本可产生约50太字节的数据，其中包含已完成图谱绘制的神经元，用户可通过NeuronBrowser应用进行浏览。若研究人员需获取完整原始数据集，可联系贾内利亚（Janelia）商讨通过硬件移交的方式获取。