近日，The MICrONS Consortium研究开发出了跨越小鼠视觉皮层多个区域的功能连接组学。相关论文发表在2025年4月9日出版的《自然》杂志上。

在这里，研究组介绍了MICrONS功能连接组数据集，其中包括初级视觉皮层（VISp）和高级视觉区域（VISrl， VISal和VISlm）中约75,000个神经元的密集钙成像，这些神经元处于清醒状态，正在观看自然和合成刺激。这些数据与包含超过20万个细胞和5亿个突触的电子显微镜重建共同记录。对神经元子集的校对产生了重建，包括完整的树突树以及局部和区域间的轴突投影，这些轴突投影映射到每个神经元细胞间连接的需求。

该数据集作为开放获取资源发布，包括用于数据检索和分析的工具。相关研究描述了其主题，包括细胞类型的综合表征，皮质柱的突触水平连接图，以及揭示与基因表达数据相关的细胞类型特异性抑制连接。在功能上，研究组确定了信息如何跨视觉空间整合的新计算原理，表征了新型的神经元不变性，并将结构和功能结合在一起，揭示了区域内和区域间兴奋性神经元之间连接的一般原理。

据了解，了解大脑需要了解神经元对形成它们的电路结构的功能反应。

附：英文原文

Title: Functional connectomics spanning multiple areas of mouse visual cortex

Author: Forrest Collman, Nuno Maarico da Costa, Xaq Pitkow, R. Clay Reid, Jacob Reimer, H. Sebastian Seung or Andreas S. Tolias.

Issue&Volume: 2025-04-09

Abstract: Understanding the brain requires understanding neurons’ functional responses to the circuit architecture shaping them. Here we introduce the MICrONS functional connectomics dataset with dense calcium imaging of around 75,000 neurons in primary visual cortex (VISp) and higher visual areas (VISrl, VISal and VISlm) in an awake mouse that is viewing natural and synthetic stimuli. These data are co-registered with an electron microscopy reconstruction containing more than 200,000 cells and 0.5 billion synapses. Proofreading of a subset of neurons yielded reconstructions that include complete dendritic trees as well the local and inter-areal axonal projections that map up to thousands of cell-to-cell connections per neuron. Released as an open-access resource, this dataset includes the tools for data retrieval and analysis1,2. Accompanying studies describe its use for comprehensive characterization of cell types3,4,5,6, a synaptic level connectivity diagram of a cortical column4, and uncovering cell-type-specific inhibitory connectivity that can be linked to gene expression data4,7. Functionally, we identify new computational principles of how information is integrated across visual space8, characterize novel types of neuronal invariances9 and bring structure and function together to uncover a general principle for connectivity between excitatory neurons within and across areas10,11.

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08790-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08790-w