X-ray computerized tomography (microCT) is critical for efficient volume electron microscopy}

对整个大脑进行成像需要投入大量的时间和资源。确保只有最好的样品才能通过一条运行多年的管道进行处理，这是必须的。纳米分辨率成像的样品制备并不是没有结果的一些可变性，这取决于起始条件中的微小的、往往无法检测到的差异。为了选择最好的染色和无伪影的样本，研究人员使用X射线显微镜对整个样本进行成像，以获得1微米分辨率的体积。对每个样品的这些体积进行自动化和目视检查，是一种质量控制形式，能够选择一个最佳样品，以便随后使用纳米分辨率的电子显微镜进行成像。从这些最佳样本的体积中，我们可以最好地绘制其中包含的所有神经元电路的突触接线图，并研究神经电路的结构如何与功能相关，最终与行为控制有关。通过筛选许多样本以寻找最佳的、无伪影的样本，我们可以最好地利用现有的显微镜资源，降低数据存储成本，极大地降低后处理成本，特别是在电路校对阶段，并提供完整的突触接线图或连接组，为研究神经电路行为基础做好准备。这些体积和神经回路将被存放在公共数据库中，成为更广泛的研究社区的资源，为未来的大脑功能研究奠定基础，例如将精神疾病动物模型的回路与健康回路进行比较，以确定精神疾病的神经回路基础的研究。

Imaging the whole brain requires considerable commitment of time and resources. Ensuring that only the best samples are processed through a pipeline that runs over multiple years is a must. Sample preparation for imaging at nanometre resolution is not without some variability in the outcomes, depending upon minor, often undetectable differences in the starting conditions. In order to choose the best stained and artefact-free sample, researchers image the whole sample using X-ray microscopy, to obtain a volume with 1 micrometre resolution. Automated and visual inspection of these volumes, for every sample, is a form of quality control that enables choosing an optimal sample for subsequent imaging with electron microscopy at nanometre resolution. From the volumes of these optimal samples, we can then best map the synaptic wiring diagram of all the neuronal circuits contained within, and study how the structure of a neural circuit relates to the function and, ultimately, to the control of behaviour. By screening many samples in search of an optimal, artefact-free sample, we can best utilize available microscopy resources, reduce data storage costs, greatly reduce post-processing costs particularly at the circuit proofreading stage, and deliver a complete synaptic wiring diagram, or connectome, ready for studying the neural circuit basis of behaviour. Such volumes and neural circuits will be deposited in public databases to become a resource for the broader research community, establishing foundational work on which to base future studies of brain function, such as studies where the circuits of animal models of mental disease are compared with the healthy circuits to identify the neural circuit basis of mental disease.