3-D Image Pre-processing Algorithms for Improved Automated Tracing of Neuronal Arbors
3-D Image Pre-processing Algorithms for Improved Automated Tracing of Neuronal Arbors
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DOI：
10.1007/s12021-011-9116-z
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发表时间：
2011-09-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
Roysam, Badrinath
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Narayanaswamy, Arunachalam;Wang, Yu;Roysam, Badrinath
自动神经突追踪系统的准确性和可靠性最终受到图像质量的限制，如在信噪比、对比度和图像可变性中所反映的。本文介绍了一种新的图像处理方法，共聚焦和宽视场显微镜捕获的神经突的图像上操作的组合，并产生合成图像，更适合于自动跟踪。该算法是基于曲波变换（去噪曲线结构和局部方向估计），感知分组标量投票（消除非管状结构和改善神经突的连续性，同时保留分支点），自适应焦点检测，和深度估计（用于处理宽视场图像，而不去卷积）。所提出的方法是快速的，并能够处理大图像。它们处理无限大小图像的能力来自于沿着横向尺寸自动平铺大图像，以及每次处理一个光学切片的3D图像。它们的速度部分来自于核心计算是根据快速傅立叶变换（FFT）来制定的，部分来自于多核计算机上的并行计算。这些方法很容易应用于新的图像，因为它们需要很少的可调参数，所有这些都是直观的。预处理DIADEM挑战图像的例子被用来说明改进的自动跟踪从我们的预处理方法。
The accuracy and reliability of automated neurite tracing systems is ultimately limited by image quality as reflected in the signal-to-noise ratio, contrast, and image variability. This paper describes a novel combination of image processing methods that operate on images of neurites captured by confocal and widefield microscopy, and produce synthetic images that are better suited to automated tracing. The algorithms are based on the curvelet transform (for denoising curvilinear structures and local orientation estimation), perceptual grouping by scalar voting (for elimination of non-tubular structures and improvement of neurite continuity while preserving branch points), adaptive focus detection, and depth estimation (for handling widefield images without deconvolution). The proposed methods are fast, and capable of handling large images. Their ability to handle images of unlimited size derives from automated tiling of large images along the lateral dimension, and processing of 3-D images one optical slice at a time. Their speed derives in part from the fact that the core computations are formulated in terms of the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and in part from parallel computation on multi-core computers. The methods are simple to apply to new images since they require very few adjustable parameters, all of which are intuitive. Examples of pre-processing DIADEM Challenge images are used to illustrate improved automated tracing resulting from our pre-processing methods.