Tools for integrating 3D single cell and population neuroanatomy data

Having a detailed wiring diagram of brain circuits and substantial numbers of 3D reconstructions of neurons would help immensely with modeling their operation but surprisingly few of the reconstructions which have been done by neuroanatomy labs are available electronically. And even where they are, the data from different labs and brain regions are hard to compare and combine, with cells floating in free space and not tethered to 3D landmarks. The www.ratbrain.org project [1] has developed software and databases to help improve data collection and sharing of neurolucida reconstructions of cells and populations in different areas of the rat brain. The aim is to enable novel quantitative studies of long range connectivity which span data from multple anatomy labs and multiple brain regions.