Automated analysis of the cerebral cortex using a television image analyzer

In the context of the development of approaches to a quantitative automated analysis of neural tissue, the use of television image analyzers seems to be fairly promising. A complex of programmes for the television analysis system (TAS) by "Leitz Company" has been developed to implement an automated analysis of cerebral cortex sections. At the first stage of investigation, the operator sets a plan of scanning the object in the interactive regimen and with a small magnification of the microscope. The second stage involves the focusing and discrimination of images, selection of objects for analysis and measurement of the principal stereological parameters of neurons with a large magnification and at an automatic regimen. The curves obtained of changes of the stereological characteristics of the cortex in relation to the distance to the surface are in good agreement with the cytoarchitectonic pattern observed. Thus, the use of the TAS allows for the effective automated processing of neuromorphological preparations.