title: A Tool for Brain-Wide Quantitative Analysis of Molecular Data upon Projection into a Planar View of Choice.
abstract: Several techniques, allowing the reconstruction and visualization of functional, anatomical or molecular information from tissue and organ slices, have been developed over the years. Yet none allow direct comparison without reprocessing the same slices. Alternative methods using publicly available reference maps like the Allen Brain Atlas lack flexibility with respect to age and species. We propose a new approach to reconstruct a segmented region of interest from serial slices by projecting the optical density values representing a given molecular signal to a plane of view of choice, and to generalize the results into a reference map, which is built from the individual maps of all animals under study. Furthermore, to allow quantitative comparison between experimental conditions, a non-parametric pseudot-test has been implemented. This new mapping tool was applied, optimized and validated making use of anin situhybridization dataset that represents the spatiotemporal expression changes for the neuronal activity reporter genezif268, in relation to cortical plasticity induced by monocular enucleation, covering the entire mouse visual cortex. The created top view maps of the mouse brain allow precisely delineating and interpreting 11 extrastriate areas surrounding mouse V1. As such, and because of the opportunity to create a planar projection of choice, these molecular maps can in the future easily be compared with functional or physiological imaging maps created with other techniques such as Ca2+, flavoprotein and optical imaging.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroplasticity and Neuroproteomics, KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Samme
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vreysen
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroplasticity and Neuroproteomics, KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Scheyltjens
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroplasticity and Neuroproteomics, KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Marie-Eve
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Laramée
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neuroplasticity and Neuroproteomics, KU Leuven Leuven, Belgium.
authors.forename: Lutgarde
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Arckens
keywords: 3D reconstruction; extrastriate areas; non-parametric statistics; pseudo t-test; reorganization; visual cortex