Whole human-brain mapping of single cortical neurons for profiling morphological diversity and stereotypy.
Xiaofeng Han, Shuxia Guo, Nan Ji, Tian Li, Jian Liu, Xiangqiao Ye, Yi Wang, Zhixi Yun, Feng Xiong, Jing Rong, Di Liu, Hui Ma, Yujin Wang, Yue Huang, Peng Zhang, Wenhao Wu, Liya Ding, Michael Hawrylycz, Ed Lein, Giorgio A Ascoli, Wei Xie, Lijuan Liu, Liwei Zhang, Hanchuan Peng
Author Information
Xiaofeng Han: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Shuxia Guo: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Nan Ji: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. ORCID
Tian Li: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. ORCID
Jian Liu: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Xiangqiao Ye: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Yi Wang: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. ORCID
Zhixi Yun: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Feng Xiong: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Jing Rong: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China.
Di Liu: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Hui Ma: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Yujin Wang: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. ORCID
Yue Huang: China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing, China. ORCID
Peng Zhang: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. ORCID
Wenhao Wu: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
Liya Ding: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Michael Hawrylycz: Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, USA.
Ed Lein: Allen Institute for Brain Science, Seattle, WA, USA. ORCID
Giorgio A Ascoli: Center for Neural Informatics, Krasnow Institute for Advanced Studies and Bioengineering Department, College of Engineering and Computing, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA. ORCID
Wei Xie: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Lijuan Liu: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Liwei Zhang: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China. ORCID
Hanchuan Peng: Institute for Brain and Intelligence, Southeast University, Nanjing, China. ORCID
Quantifying neuron morphology and distribution at the whole-brain scale is essential to understand the structure and diversity of cell types. It is exceedingly challenging to reuse recent technologies of single-cell labeling and whole-brain imaging to study human brains. We propose adaptive cell tomography (ACTomography), a low-cost, high-throughput, and high-efficacy tomography approach, based on adaptive targeting of individual cells. We established a platform to inject dyes into cortical neurons in surgical tissues of 18 patients with brain tumors or other conditions and one donated fresh postmortem brain. We collected three-dimensional images of 1746 cortical neurons, of which 852 neurons were reconstructed to quantify local dendritic morphology, and mapped to standard atlases. In our data, human neurons are more diverse across brain regions than by subject age or gender. The strong stereotypy within cohorts of brain regions allows generating a statistical tensor field of neuron morphology to characterize anatomical modularity of a human brain.
