Connectionists: Internet-Enabled High-Resolution Brain Mapping and Virtual Microscopy
Shawn Mikula
samikula at ucdavis.edu
Sat Jan 20 01:06:49 EST 2007
The following article is now available at
http://brainmaps.org/index.php?p=publications
Mikula S, Trotts I, Stone JM, and Jones EG
Internet-Enabled High-Resolution Brain Mapping and Virtual Microscopy
ABSTRACT
Virtual microscopy involves the conversion of histological sections mounted
on glass microscope slides to high resolution digital images. Virtual
microscopy offers several advantages over traditional microscopy, including
remote viewing and data-sharing, annotation, and various forms of
data-mining.
We describe a method utilizing virtual microscopy for generation of
internet-enabled, high-resolution brain maps and atlases. Virtual
microscopy-based digital brain atlases have resolutions approaching 100,000
dpi, which exceeds by three or more orders of magnitude resolutions
obtainable in conventional print atlases, MRI, and flat-bed scanning.
Virtual microscopy-based digital brain atlases are superior to conventional
print atlases in five respects: 1) resolution, 2) annotation, 3)
interaction, 4) data integration, and 5) data-mining.
Implementation of virtual microscopy-based digital brain atlases is located
at BrainMaps.org, which is based on more than 10 million megapixels (35
terabytes) of scanned images of serial sections of primate and non-primate
brains with a resolution of 0.46 microns/pixel (55,000 dpi).
The method can be replicated by labs seeking to increase accessibility and
sharing of neuroanatomical data. Online tools offer the possibility of
visualizing and exploring completely digitized sections of brains at a
sub-neuronal level, and can facilitate large-scale connectional tracing,
histochemical and stereological analyses.
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