Segmentation of the 4DL Connectome 12: Deconvolution PSFs (calibration information)

Connectomic analysis of the nervous system aims to discover and establish principles that underpin normal and abnormal neural connectivity and function. In Hirst et al (2013) we performed image analysis of motor unit connectivity in the fourth deep lumbrical muscle (4DL) of mice, using transgenic expression of fluorescent protein in motor neurones as a morphological reporter. We developed a method that accelerated segmentation of confocal image projections of 4DL motor units, by applying high resolution (63×, 1.4 NA objective) imaging or deconvolution only where either proved necessary, in order to resolve axon crossings that produced ambiguities in the correct assignment of axon terminals to identified motor units imaged at lower optical resolution (40×, 1.3 NA). The remainder of the data relating to this study can be found grouped together in the "Connectomic analysis of the mouse fourth deep lumbrical muscle connectome" DataShare Collection at http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/handle/10283/2657.

神经系统连接组学分析旨在发掘并确立支撑正常与异常神经连接及功能的核心原理。在Hirst等（2013）的研究中，我们以运动神经元内荧光蛋白的转基因表达作为形态学报告标记物，对小鼠第四深蚓状肌（4DL）的运动单位连接特性开展了图像分析。我们开发了一种可加速4DL运动单位共聚焦图像投影分割的方法：仅在确有必要时，采用高分辨率成像（63×物镜，数值孔径1.4）或图像反卷积技术，以解决轴突交叉问题——该现象会导致低光学分辨率（40×物镜，数值孔径1.3）下采集的图像中，轴突终末向已识别运动单位的正确归属产生歧义。本研究其余相关数据可在爱丁堡大学DataShare馆藏的「Connectomic analysis of the mouse fourth deep lumbrical muscle connectome」数据集中获取，链接为：http://datashare.is.ed.ac.uk/handle/10283/2657。