Generating brain-wide connectome using synthetic axonal morphologies

Abstract Recent experimental advancements, including electron microscopy reconstructions, have produced detailed connectivity data for local brain regions. On the other hand, for inter-regional connectivity, large-scale imaging techniques such as MRI are best suited to provide insights. However, und...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Remy Petkantchin, Adrien Berchet, Hanchuan Peng, Henry Markram, Lida Kanari
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-07-01
Series:Nature Communications
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-62030-3
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Summary:Abstract Recent experimental advancements, including electron microscopy reconstructions, have produced detailed connectivity data for local brain regions. On the other hand, for inter-regional connectivity, large-scale imaging techniques such as MRI are best suited to provide insights. However, understanding the relationship between local and long-range connectivity is essential for studying both healthy and pathological conditions of the brain. Leveraging a dataset of whole-brain axonal reconstructions, we present a technique to predict whole-brain connectivity at single cell level for pyramidal cells in the cortex by generating detailed whole-brain axonal morphologies from sparse experimental data. The computationally generated axons accurately reproduce the local and global morphological properties of experimental reconstructions. Furthermore, the computationally synthesized axons generate large-scale inter-regional connectivity, defining the projectome and the connectome of the brain, thereby enabling the in silico experimentation of large brain regions.
ISSN:2041-1723