Visualization, reconstruction, and integration of neuronal structures in digital brain atlases

Brain atlases are used in neuroanatomy to define the spatial layout of neuronal structures. Their digital variant can serve as a database and common reference frame for integrating data from different biological experiments. This article presents an overview of methods for three-dimensional visualization of neuroanatomical image data, reconstructing neuronal structures from image data, creating digital brain atlases, and registering data in an atlas. This enables analysis of spatial relations between individual structures imaged in different experiments as well as between these structures and the atlas.