MouseLight Neuron AA0659

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.

贾内莉亚（Janelia）科学家团队开展的大规模神经示踪研究，将小鼠大脑中已完成全路径示踪的神经元数量提升至原有的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，单个神经元会在大脑半球间蜿蜒穿行，织就精巧繁复的分支形态；研究人员此次还发现，神经元甚至可伸出长达45厘米的细长纤维。
研究人员可通过这一迄今最精细的小鼠大脑连接图谱，以三维形式观察并探索这些蜿蜒的神经示踪痕迹。该图谱重构了小鼠大脑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。
研究人员通过结合双光子显微镜（two-photon microscopy）的迭代成像流程，对经选择性标记的神经元进行了绘制：将小鼠大脑切成200微米厚的脑片，每次对数十个神经元进行标记并成像。每颗经成像的大脑可产生约50太字节的数据，其中包含已绘制完成的神经元信息，研究人员可通过神经元浏览器（NeuronBrowser）应用程序进行浏览。
若有研究人员需要完整的原始数据集，可联系贾内莉亚（Janelia）协商通过硬件传输的方式获取。