CS Events Monthly View

Connectomics is an area of neuroscience aimed to discover the neuron shape and interconnections (neural network) within animal brain. A comprehensive knowledge of the biological neural network – often distilled from very detailed Electron Microscopic (EM) images of neural tissue -- is critically important for a complete understanding of brain functionality. Recent advances in EM imaging have enabled us to capture the minuscule cellular processes at nanometer scale. However, such ultra-high resolution recording also produces a massive amount of data that must be analyzed to extract the neurons. Practical neural reconstruction approaches rely on computer vision algorithms such as segmentation and synaptic junction detection to perform this task. In this talk, I will describe the EM neural reconstruction framework that has been used at HHMI Janelia Research to reconstruct multiple neuropils of the fruit fly brain. I will also briefly mention how these reconstructions led to fundamental biological discoveries.