Detailed map captures 3D shapes of neurons and their synapses in stunning detail and is open to community for neuroscience and machine learning research July 29, 2021…

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Several different mouse neurons virtually reconstructed in 3D show the complexity of tracing the shapes and branching axons and dendrites within a small piece of the brain.

A team of neuroscientists and engineers at the Allen Institute, Princeton University and Baylor College of Medicine has just released a collection of data that marries a 3D wiring diagram with the function of tens of thousands of neurons to create the most detailed examination of mammalian brain circuitry to date.

The dataset, which is publicly available for anyone in the community to browse and use, maps the fine structures and connectivity of 200,000 brain cells and close to 500 million synapses all contained in a cubic millimeter chunk of mouse brain — approximately the size of a grain of sand — from the visual neocortex, the part of the mammalian brain that processes what we see.