MouseLight Neuron AA1617

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. 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. 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. 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 at https://ml-neuronbrowser.janelia.org/. Researchers interested in the complete raw data set should contact Janelia to discuss obtaining it via hardware transfer.

一群来自Janelia研究所的科学家们开展了一场庞大的神经追踪工作，将小鼠大脑中完全追踪到的神经元数量提高了十倍。研究者们现在可以下载并三维浏览这些数据。在小鼠大脑内部，单个神经元在半球间蜿蜒曲折，编织出复杂的分支图案，而研究者们新近发现，这些神经元甚至能够延伸出长达45厘米的细丝。科学家们能够通过迄今为止构建的最详尽的小鼠大脑神经网络图谱，在三维空间中观察并探索这些游走的神经轨迹。该图谱重建了小鼠大脑中7000万神经元中超过300万个的形状和位置。以往追踪单个神经元路径的努力最多只能追踪到数十个。这些选择性标记的神经元通过迭代过程和双光子显微镜进行测绘。大脑被切成200微米厚的切片，每次标记并成像几十个神经元。每张成像的大脑能够产生大约50太字节的数据，每份数据中包含的已测绘神经元可通过NeuronBrowser应用程序进行浏览，该应用程序的网址为https://ml-neuronbrowser.janelia.org/。对完整原始数据集感兴趣的研究者应联系Janelia，以讨论通过硬件传输获取数据的方式。