MouseLight Neuron AA0541

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. <br>

由Janelia科研团队主导的大规模神经追踪研究，将小鼠大脑中已完成完整追踪的神经元数量提升了10倍。如今研究人员可下载并以三维形式浏览该数据集。
在小鼠大脑中，单个神经元会蜿蜒穿梭于左右大脑半球之间，织就出繁复的分支形态；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。
科学家们可在这一迄今最精细的小鼠大脑连接图谱中，以三维视角观察并探索这些蜿蜒的神经追踪轨迹。该图谱重构了小鼠大脑7000万神经元中逾300个的形态与位置；此前的单个神经元路径追踪研究，最多仅能完成数十个神经元的追踪。
本次研究采用双光子显微镜（two-photon microscopy）的迭代成像流程，对选择性标记的神经元进行成像绘制。研究人员将小鼠大脑切成200微米厚的薄片，每次对数十个神经元进行标记并成像。每颗完成成像的大脑可产生约50太字节（terabytes）的数据，其中包含的已追踪神经元数据可通过NeuronBrowser应用程序进行浏览。若研究人员需获取完整的原始数据集，可联系Janelia协商通过硬件传输的方式获取。