Structural mapping of systems and regions in whole rat- and mouse brains

Ageing and disease afflicting the brain cause cognitive, motor, and emotional dysfunction. To better diagnose, understand, and amend such disorders, we first need better knowledge about the normal neural architecture. This project aims to map and quantify structural features of neural networks in young, adult and aging rats and mice. We will use combinations of (immuno)-histochemistry and axonal tracing techniques to label a range of cellular, subcellular components and neural connections in rodent brains at different ages. Labelled features will be visualized using high-resolution slide scanning and two-photon microscopy, and microscopic images will be analyzed using digital atlasing tools and computational image analyses. The microscopic images, describing regional and subregional spatial distribution of specific cellular markers and axonal connections in the cerebral cortex and subcortical structures, will be organized in a neuroinformatics database system developed in our laboratory, and publicly shared via the Rodent Brain Workbench (www.rbwb.org). Images will be co-registered to three-dimensional digital reference atlases for the rat and mouse brain to facilitate efficient analyses, comparison and integration of data. The project is associated with the EU Future Emerging Technologies Flagship project “The Human Brain Project”, to which we contribute with development of rodent brain atlases and pipelines for analysis and sharing of large amounts of neuroscience data.