Cajal Blue Brain Project, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Madrid, Spain.
Neuroinformatics. 2012 Oct;10(4):391-407. doi: 10.1007/s12021-012-9153-2.
Current understanding of the synaptic organization of the brain depends to a large extent on knowledge about the synaptic inputs to the neurons. Indeed, the dendritic surfaces of pyramidal cells (the most common neuron in the cerebral cortex) are covered by thin protrusions named dendritic spines. These represent the targets of most excitatory synapses in the cerebral cortex and therefore, dendritic spines prove critical in learning, memory and cognition. This paper presents a new method that facilitates the analysis of the 3D structure of spine insertions in dendrites, providing insight on spine distribution patterns. This method is based both on the implementation of straightening and unrolling transformations to move the analysis process to a planar, unfolded arrangement, and on the design of DISPINE, an interactive environment that supports the visual analysis of 3D patterns.
目前对大脑突触组织的理解在很大程度上依赖于对神经元突触输入的了解。事实上，大脑皮层中最常见的神经元——锥体细胞的树突表面覆盖着被称为树突棘的细突起。这些突起代表了大脑皮层中大多数兴奋性突触的靶标，因此，树突棘在学习、记忆和认知中起着至关重要的作用。本文提出了一种新的方法，方便了对树突中棘突插入的 3D 结构的分析，提供了关于棘突分布模式的深入了解。该方法基于实现直线化和平展变换的方法，将分析过程转移到平面、展开的排列中，并基于 DISPINE 的设计，这是一个支持 3D 模式可视化分析的交互环境。
