Virtual microscopy of brain tissue

Virtual microscopy of brain tissue is demonstrated in a prototype automated system for the parallel tracing of neurons and their connections. The soft ware system (1) incorporates heuristics for tissue feature extraction, (2) demonstrates dendritic arbor and fiber pathway reconstruction, and (3) fram es a finite element model of the environment in which these neurons grow an d interconnect. The technology will enable the collection of an extensive d atabase of measured neurons, leading to an enlarged knowledge base of neuro n morphological models. While our work is directed to neuron and fiber trac ing in brain tissue, it is applicable to other similar tissues, for instanc e, the reconstruction of blood vessels or bronchioles (Barillot et al., Com put. Graphics Appl. 5 (1985) 13-19). (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.