3D Visualization for Novel Insights into Brain Structure

描述(申请人提供)：神经系统是神经元及其轴突投射、胶质和血管供应的复杂排列，但我们关于信息处理的概念在很大程度上是以神经元为中心的。这种偏差是由于标准解剖学技术在映射神经元之间的突触连接相对于神经和非神经细胞之间的其他物理交互作用方面的效率所致。许多研究表明神经元群和神经胶质网络的空间组织，但还没有一个完整的方法来研究空间组织和相互作用。我们将使用一种新技术，连续块面扫描电子显微镜，以高分辨率重建大组织体积的所有细胞元素，以确定神经系统细胞组织的新原理。我们将利用人类的视觉认知能力，通过开发在软件用户界面中实现的程序，在3-D虚拟现实环境中显示细胞元素和血管结构的组合，从而理解空间秩序。确定结构特征，这些特征 随着高通量、高分辨率的脑结构研究变得越来越普遍，定义组织的3D组织将有助于其他研究人员对大规模组织体积的调查。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The nervous system is a complex arrangement of neurons, their axonal projections, glia and vascular supply, yet our concepts about information processing are heavily neuron-centric. This bias results from the efficiency of standard anatomical techniques to map synaptic connections between neurons relative to other physical interactions among neural and non-neural cells. Spatial organization of neuronal groups and glia networks is indicated in many studies, but spatial organization and interactions have not been studied with an integrated approach. We will employ a new technology, serial block-face scanning electron microscopy, to reconstruct, at high resolution, all cellular elements of large tissue volumes to identify new principles in nervous system cellular organization. We will tap into human visual-cognitive capabilities to understand spatial order by developing procedures, implemented in a software user interface, to display combinations of cellular elements and vascular structures in 3-D virtual reality environments. Identification of structural features that define 3D organization of tissue will facilitate investigation of large-scale tissue volumes by othr investigators as high-throughput, high resolution studies of brain structure become more common.