Title :
A differential evolution algorithm for the detection of synaptic vesicles
Author :
LaTorre, Antonio ; Muelas, Santiago ; Peña, José-María ; Santana, Roberto ; Merchán-Pérez, Ángel ; Rodríguez, José-Rodrigo
Author_Institution :
Fac. de Inf., Univ. Politec. de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Abstract :
Neurotransmitters used by chemical synapses are stored in synaptic vesicles that accumulate in axon terminals. The number and position of these vesicles have been related to some important functional properties of the synapse. For this reason, an accurate mechanism for semi-automatically counting these small cellular structures will be of great help for neuroscientists. In this paper, we present a Differential Evolution algorithm that quantifies the number of synaptic vesicles in electron micrographs. The algorithm has been tested on several images that have been obtained from the somatosensory cortex of the rat and compared with some traditional approaches for detecting circular structures. Finally, the results have been validated by two independent expert anatomists.
Keywords :
biomedical equipment; cellular biophysics; mechanoception; neurophysiology; scanning electron microscopy; FIB-SEM images; axon terminals; cellular structures; chemical synapses; circular structures; differential evolution algorithm; electron micrographs; neurotransmitters; semiautomatic counting; somatosensory cortex; synaptic vesicle detection; two-independent expert anatomists; Convergence; Filtering; Image edge detection; Microscopy; Nerve fibers; Pixel; Robustness;
Conference_Titel :
Evolutionary Computation (CEC), 2011 IEEE Congress on
Conference_Location :
New Orleans, LA
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-7834-7
DOI :
10.1109/CEC.2011.5949818
