TY  - JOUR
AU  - Menzel, Miriam
AU  - Reuter, Jan André
AU  - Gräßel, David
AU  - Huwer, Mike
AU  - Schlömer, Philipp
AU  - Amunts, Katrin
AU  - Axer, Markus
TI  - Scattered Light Imaging: Resolving the substructure of nerve fiber crossings in whole brain sections with micrometer resolution
JO  - NeuroImage
VL  - 233
SN  - 1053-8119
CY  - Orlando, Fla.
PB  - Academic Press
M1  - FZJ-2021-01331
SP  - 117952 -
PY  - 2021
AB  - For developing a detailed network model of the brain based on image reconstructions, it is necessary to spatially resolve crossing nerve fibers. The accuracy hereby depends on many factors, including the spatial resolution of the imaging technique. 3D Polarized Light Imaging (3D-PLI) allows the three-dimensional reconstruction of nerve fiber tracts in whole brain sections with micrometer in-plane resolution, but leaves uncertainties in pixels containing crossing fibers. Here we introduce Scattered Light Imaging (SLI) to resolve the substructure of nerve fiber crossings. The measurement is performed on the same unstained histological brain sections as in 3D-PLI. By illuminating the brain sections from different angles and measuring the transmitted (scattered) light under normal incidence, light intensity profiles are obtained that are characteristic for the underlying brain tissue structure. We have developed a fully automated evaluation of the intensity profiles, allowing the user to extract various characteristics, like the individual directions of in-plane crossing nerve fibers, for each image pixel at once. We validate the reconstructed nerve fiber directions against results from previous simulation studies, scatterometry measurements, and fiber directions obtained from 3D-PLI. We demonstrate in different brain samples (human optic tracts, vervet monkey brain, rat brain) that the 2D fiber directions can be reliably reconstructed for up to three crossing nerve fiber bundles in each image pixel with an in-plane resolution of up to 6.5 $\mu$m. We show that SLI also yields reliable fiber directions in brain regions with low 3D-PLI signals coming from regions with a low density of myelinated nerve fibers or out-of-plane fibers. This makes Scattered Light Imaging a promising new imaging technique, providing crucial information about the organization of crossing nerve fibers in the brain.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - 33716156
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000647590900007
DO  - DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117952
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/891045
ER  -