Knowledge of mesoscopic brain connectivity is important for understanding inter- and intraregion information processing. Models of structural connectivity are typically constructed and analyzed with the assumption that regions are homogeneous. We instead use the Allen Mouse Brain Connectivity Atlas to construct a model of whole-brain connectivity at the scale of 100 μm voxels. The data consist of 428 anterograde tracing experiments in wild type C57BL/6J mice, mapping fluorescently labeled neuronal projections brain-wide. Inferring spatial connectivity with this dataset is underdetermined, since the approximately 2 × 105 source voxels outnumber the number of experiments. To address this issue, we assume that connection patterns and strengths vary smoothly across major brain divisions. We model the connectivity at each voxel as a radial basis kernel-weighted average of the projection patterns of nearby injections. The voxel model outperforms a previous regional model in predicting held-out experiments and compared with a human-curated dataset. This voxel-scale model of the mouse connectome permits researchers to extend their previous analyses of structural connectivity to much higher levels of resolution, and it allows for comparison with functional imaging and other datasets.
Pubmed ID: 30793081 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
Map of neural connections in mouse brain, built on an array of transgenic mice genetically engineered to target specific cell types. In addition to the connectivity data, information about the transgenic mouse lines and genetic tracers is available. Consists of high resolution 2-D projectivity image data that can be viewed side-by-side with the associated reference atlas and other reference datasets. Enables 3-D visualization and spatial/ontological search of connectivity models through a combination of manual and informatics analyses.
View all literature mentionsMus musculus with name C57BL/6J from IMSR.
View all literature mentions