SSECRETT and NeuroTrace: Interactive Visualization and Analysis Tools for Large-Scale Neuroscience Datasets

Abstract

Recent advances in optical and electron microscopy allow scientists to acquire extremely high-resolution images for neuroscience research. Datasets imaged with modern electron microscopes can range between tens of terabytes to about one petabyte in size. These large data sizes and the high complexity of the underlying neural structures make it very challenging to handle the data at reasonably interactive rates. To provide neuroscientists flexible and interactive tools for their scientific work we introduce SSECRETT and NeuroTrace, two systems that were designed for interactive exploration and analysis of large-scale optical and electron microscope images to reconstruct complex neural circuits of the mammalian nervous system.