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New Tool Tracks Individual Brain Cells in Mice for Up to 99 Days
Summary: Tracking the same neurons in the brain over
time has long challenged neuroscientists using calcium imaging in
freely moving mice. A new analytical tool called CaliAli overcomes these
limitations by aligning imaging data across sessions with remarkable
accuracy.
It reconstructs continuous neural activity videos and
extracts clear signals while eliminating redundancies and noise. Using
CaliAli, researchers successfully monitored the same neurons for up to
99 days, enabling unprecedented insights into long-term brain function
and neurological disease progression.
Key Facts:
- Precision Tracking: CaliAli allows individual neurons to be tracked for up to 99 days.
- Advanced Alignment: Corrects field-of-view shifts and tissue deformation across sessions.
- Noise Reduction: Extracts clean neural signals while filtering out redundant or noisy data.
Source: University of Tsukuba
Calcium
imaging with ultra-small microscopes has become a widely used method
for visualizing brain activity in mice during natural behaviors,
including sleep.
However, current analysis techniques struggle to follow the same
neuronal populations over time due to shifts in the imaging field of
view and subtle tissue deformations between sessions.
also incorporates an optimized algorithm to automatically extract
neural signals from the aligned video while filtering out noise and
eliminating redundant detections. Credit: Neuroscience News
These issues make it difficult to reliably identify and track individual neurons across days or weeks.
To
overcome these limitations, the research team developed CaliAli
(Calcium Imaging inter-session Alignment), an advanced analytical
framework designed specifically for aligning data across multiple
sessions.
CaliAli corrects image misalignments by systematically integrating
data from each processing step, ultimately reconstructing a continuous
and coherent video. It also incorporates an optimized algorithm to
automatically extract neural signals from the aligned video while
filtering out noise and eliminating redundant detections.
Using
this method, researchers were able to track and record the same group of
neurons continuously for up to 99 days with a standard ultra-miniature
microscope—a world first.
CaliAli opens new possibilities for
long-term brain activity studies and could significantly advance our
understanding of memory formation, retention, and the gradual changes in
brain function associated with neurological diseases.
Funding: This
work was partially supported by the Japan Agency for Medical Research
and Development (JP21zf0127005, JP23wm0525003), Japan Society for the
Promotion of Science (JSPS)(24H00894, 23H02784, 22H00469, 16H06280,
20H03552, 21H05674, 21F21080), Takeda Science Foundation, Uehara
Memorial Foundation, The Mitsubishi Foundation, and G-7 Scholarship
Foundation to M.S., JSPS (23K19393, 24K18212) to I.K. and the Japan
Science and Technology Agency (JPMJSP2124) to Y.W.
About this neurotech and neuroscience research news
Author: YAMASHINA Naoko
Source: University of Tsukuba
Contact: YAMASHINA Naoko – University of Tsukuba
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“A comprehensive suite for extracting neuron signals across multiple sessions in one-photon calcium imaging” by SAKAGUCHI, Masanori et al. Nature Communications
