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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
University of Oregon has a laboratory where they study the nervous system of the C. elegans worm. They have built a model of the brain, which is feasible given that it is composed of 302 neurons, and approx 5000 synapses. They use imaging to track the worm in order to infer characteristics of the motor system. This includes observing the various swimming morphologies that the worm takes on during motion, and it's behaviour in following nutrient gradients. They are also building a system where they genetically modify the worm such that a specific neuron fluoresces when active, and have designed and will build a very novel system for observing this. Instead of using a simple camera and microscope that tracks the worm, they will instead build a CCD detector covered in a transparent substrate through on which the worm moves. This way they can get a very good detection of the neuron activation without having to deal with the complexity of the moving camera setup. This team has addressed image processing issues that arise in tracking the work. One problem is that the neuron is small relative to the detector pixels, and the position of the neuron relative to the pixel (in terms of height) causes differences in the point spread function of the light source.
Host: Matthew Sottile