MouseLight Neuron AA0507

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）科研团队开展的大规模神经示踪项目，将小鼠大脑中已完成全示踪的神经元数量提升了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，单个神经元会在脑半球间蜿蜒穿行，编织出繁复的分支结构；研究团队此次还发现，这类神经元甚至可延伸出长达45厘米的纤细纤维。
此次构建的是迄今最精细的小鼠大脑连接图谱，科研人员可在此三维环境中观察并探索这些蜿蜒的神经示踪轨迹。该图谱重构了小鼠大脑7000万神经元中超过300个的形态与位置，而此前同类单个神经元示踪研究的完成量仅为数十个。
研究团队通过双光子显微镜技术的迭代流程，对选择性标记的神经元进行成像测绘。具体操作时，先将大脑切成200微米厚的切片，每次标记数十个神经元并完成成像。每枚成像大脑可产生约50太字节的数据，其中包含可通过神经元浏览器（NeuronBrowser）浏览的已测绘神经元信息。若研究人员需要完整原始数据集，可联系贾内利亚（Janelia）商讨通过硬件传输方式获取。