Advanced NeuroGPS-Tree: dense reconstruction of brain-wide neuronal population close to ground truth

Neuron is the basic structure and functional unit of the brain, its projection and connections with other neurons provide a basic physical infrastructure for neural signal storage, allocation, processing, and integration. Recent technique progresses allow for labeling and imaging specific neuronal populations at single axonal level across a whole mouse brain. However, digital reconstruction of these neuron individuals needs months of human labor or sometimes is even an impossible task. Here we developed a software tool, Advanced NeuroGPS-Tree (AdTree), to solve this problem. AdTree offers a special error screening system to achieve reconstruction close to the round truth. Moreover, AdTree equips with algorithms significantly reduces intense manual interferences and achieves high-level automated reconstruction. We demonstrated using AdTree to get almost complete reconstruction from basal dendrites to far-end axonal terminals on dense datasets that challenge state-of-the-art software tools, and even the manual reconstruction with commercial software, whose accuracy is well acknowledged. We also demonstrated about 5 times speed faster over commercial software in brain-wide reconstruction. In addition, AdTree is applicable on datasets collected with different types of light microscopies such as confocal, two-photon, and light-sheet and serial sectioning wide-field tomography. This tool will provide a starting point to reconstruct neuronal population for cell type, circuit, and neurocomputing studies at single cell level.