Utah researchers develop software to better understand brain's network of neurons.
10月. 21, 2015年的今天，动物的大脑是如此复杂, it would take a supercomputer and vast amounts of data to create a detailed 3-D model of the billions of neurons that power it.
But computer scientists and a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Utah have developed software that maps out a monkey's brain and more easily creates a three-dimensional model, providing a more complete picture of how the brain is wired. Their process was announced this week at Neuroscience 2015, the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.
亚历山德拉Angelucci
"If you understand how things are wired in the normal brain, you can use this as a basis to understand how these connections are disrupted in the abnormal brain,亚历山德拉·安杰鲁奇（如图）说道。, professor of ophthalmology and visual science at the University of Utah.
Getting a more accurate view of the brain's network of neurons can help medical researchers understand how the brain's connectivity is disrupted in mental and neurological conditions such as schizophrenia, 抑郁症, 焦虑和自闭症. 对于Angelucci, who works at the University of Utah's 莫兰眼科中心, this also can aid research on such 愿景-related conditions as amblyopia, a disorder where one or both 眼睛 lack visual acuity, 以及各种形式的视网膜退化. Angelucci has been using this software on a monkey's brain because it most closely resembles the human brain.
在过去, researchers would have to scan thousands of thin layers of a primate's brain through a microscope in order to get a view of its neurons, the brain's cells that transmit nerve impulses. There was no practical way to make a three-dimensional model of the brain from these layers. 例如, a high-resolution scan of a part of the brain the size of a penny would generate about two million images all totaling 30 terabytes (30,000 gb)的文件.
"It takes a lot of computer power because we now have to reconstruct a three-dimensional image out of this thousands and thousands of images of tissue,安吉鲁奇说. "It was simply impossible because there is no computer or software that can handle that. It involves terabytes and terabytes of data."
与计算机学院合作
由Valerio Pascucci领导的团队, a professor in the University of Utah's School of Computing and director of the university's Center for Extreme Data Management Analysis and Visualization (CEDMAV) at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute (SCI), has developed software that can create a 3-D model of an animal's brain that is much quicker and requires less computer power and system memory.
The team took an existing software platform CEDMAV created called VISUS (Visualization Streams for Ultimate Scalability) and adapted it to assemble high-resolution images of different sections of the brain into one 3-D model that can be viewed at different angles. VISUS is used to visualize huge sets of data to create weather or energy simulations or high-resolution images of cities.
创造大脑的图像, researchers first use a new method known as CLARITY that makes the brain tissue transparent by immersing it in special hydrogels. 有了新软件, hundreds of 3-D blocks of the brain are then scanned one at a time with a two-photon microscope, and scientists can view the scans immediately as opposed to waiting for them to download.
3D模型对研究的意义
在研究人员的大发娱乐下, the software then can more easily and quickly assemble the blocks into one complete picture of a region of the brain and create a 3-D model that allows the scientist to view areas and angles that couldn't be seen as easily with 2-D images. In this way, researchers can map out the individual neurons and their long tails, known as axons.
"It really unleashes a different level of understanding of the data itself being able to look at something fully in 3-D and to rotate and look at in front and in back,帕斯库奇说. "We have seen over and over in many fields that this makes people understand more quickly and much better the spatial relationship among all the parts."
有了软件, researchers also can monitor the scanning of the brain which can take weeks and make sure that no bad images are created in the process, 节省宝贵的时间.
多亏了这个新工具, medical researchers can now study and better understand how the brain's connectivity is disrupted in abnormal conditions, for example what happens to the brain's neural network resulting from retinal degeneration or conditions such as autism.
"We can view it, reconstruct it and understand its connectivity,安吉鲁奇说. "This software speeds up our ability to do that."
Also working with Pascucci on the software is master's students Cameron Christensen and Mike Liu, 研究生研究助理Duong Hoang, SCI高级工程师Giorgio Scorzelli. Working with Angelucci is Frederick Federer, a senior postdoctoral fellow. The research was supported by funds from the National Institutes of Health, 美国国家科学基金会, 以及预防失明研究.