Tree2Tree2: Neuron tracing in 3D

We seek a complete description for the neurome of the Drosophila, which involves tracing more than 20,000 neurons. The currently available tracings are sensitive to background clutter and poor contrast of the images. In this paper, we present Tree2Tree2, an automatic neuron tracing algorithm to segment neurons from 3D confocal microscopy images. Building on our previous work in segmentation [1], this method uses an adaptive initial segmentation to detect the neuronal portions, as opposed to a global strategy that often results in under segmentation. In order to connect the disjoint portions, we use a technique called Path Search, which is based on a shortest path approach. An intelligent pruning step is also implemented to delete undesired branches. Tested on 3D confocal microscopy images of GFP labeled Drosophila neurons, the visual and quantitative results suggest that Tree2Tree2 is successful in automatically segmenting neurons in images plagued by background clutter and filament discontinuities.