MouseLight Neuron AA0171

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. 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追踪研究，将小鼠大脑中已完整追踪的神经元数量提升了10倍。目前研究人员可下载并以三维形式浏览该数据集。在小鼠大脑内，单个神经元会在大脑半球间蜿蜒穿行，构建出繁复的分支形态；研究人员此次还发现，它们甚至可延伸出长达45厘米的纤细神经纤维。这是迄今已构建的最精细的小鼠大脑连接图谱，科学家可通过该图谱以三维视角观察并探索这些蜿蜒的神经追踪结构。该图谱重建了小鼠大脑7000万个神经元中超过300个的形态与位置，而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。研究团队采用双光子显微镜（two-photon microscopy），通过迭代成像流程对选择性标记的神经元进行绘制。实验中将大脑切割为200微米厚的切片，每次标记数十个神经元并完成成像。每一个完成成像的大脑样本可产生约50太字节（terabytes）的数据，其中包含已完成标注的神经元，研究人员可通过NeuronBrowser应用程序浏览这些神经元。若研究人员需要完整的原始数据集，可联系贾内利亚（Janelia）团队协商通过硬件传输的方式获取。