MAXSIM, SOFTWARE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE AXONAL ARBORS AND THEIRSIMULATED ACTIVATION

In order to analyze the structural organization of complex axonal arbo rs reconstructed from histological serial sections, and to investigate the functional implications of their geometrical properties, we devel oped software providing the following facilities: (1) direct importati on of data files generated by a commercially available 3-D light-micro scopic reconstruction system, including routine procedures for identif ication and correction of data acquisition errors; (2) real-time 3-D r otations of the arbors in the stack of serial sections; (3) multiple i nteractive display modes; (4) possibility of modifying diameter and/or connectivity of different branches; (5) simulation of the invasion of the arbor by a single action potential initiated at any chosen point, and visualization of spatio-temporal profiles of activation; (6) extr action of quantitative data converted to standard file formats compati ble with available mathematical software, All these tools can be appli ed to single or multiple axons, individually or simultaneously. The so ftware, called Maxsim, is a highly flexible C-written program running on graphical workstations using the UNIX operating system and X-Window environment.