Digital reconstructions of neuronal morphology: Three decades of research trends

• Main Authors: Maryam eHalavi, Kelly Andrew Hamilton, Ruchi eParekh, Giorgio eAscoli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2012-04-01
• Series: Frontiers in Neuroscience
• Subjects: Data Mining; data sharing; literature mining; neuron morphology; Digital reconstruction; NeuroMorpho.Org
• Online Access: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnins.2012.00049/full

The importance of neuronal morphology has been recognized from the early days of neuroscience. Elucidating the functional roles of axonal and dendritic arbors in synaptic integration, signal transmission, network connectivity, and circuit dynamics requires quantitative analyses of digital three-dimensional reconstructions.We extensively searched the scientific literature for all original reports describing reconstructions of neuronal morphology since the advent of this technique three decades ago. From almost 50,000 titles, 30,000 abstracts, and more than 10,000 full-text articles, we identified 902 publications describing approximately 44,000 digital reconstructions. Reviewing the growth of this field exposed general research trends on specific animal species, brain regions, neuron types, and experimental approaches. The entire bibliography, annotated with relevant metadata and (wherever available) direct links to the underlying digital data, is accessible at NeuroMorpho.Org.