We propose a center devoted to research and development on software and hardware for use in analyzing the images obtained by modern neuroanatomical techniques, particularly the technique of 2-deoxglucose autoradiography, which marks neural systems on the basis of their metabolism and hence reveals alterations in their functional activity. The center will be lodged in an applications oriented computer engineering environment and will provide for collaboration between neuroscientists and computer engineers. It will also provide image processing as a service to a large number of major and minor users in the Northeast Corridor and throughout the country. The image analyzing routines will focus on the detection, quantification, and mapping of the experimental effects seen in autoradiographs and on the accurate collation of different images (e.g., autoradiographic and histological images). It will also foster the study of the reproducibility and validity of various kinds of quantification, particularly those involving some kind of normalization. It will develop low cost systems for performing the basic image analyzing functions needed by investigators using the 2DG technique. By means of collaborative projects, it will seek to make available algorithms for the dimensional reconstructions of neural systems both macro and micro, to extend the image analyzing algorithms to use with other modern neuronanastomical techniques (HRP, histofluorescence, and tritiated amino acids), and to tackle the image analyzing problems that arise in 2-dimensional gel electrophoresis.
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