BrainViewer: interacting with spatial connectome data at the mesoscale

Abstract: Scientists construct connectomes, comprehensive descriptions of neuronal connections across a brain, in order to better understand and model brain function. Interactive visualizations of these pathways would enable exploratory analysis of such information flows. Current tools can be used to see individual tracing experiments which are used to build mesoscale connectomes of the mouse brain, but not the brain network itself. We present a connectivity visualization program called BrainViewer, which we use with a high-resolution mouse cortical connectome. This has the ability to display connectomes from other datasets when they become available and compare spatial connectivity across multiple brain structures. Our tool, optimized for speed and portability, presents a GUI visualization in 2-D top view and flatmap projections, allowing users to select and explore the connections of every source voxel to everywhere else in the cortex. Anatomists and other neuroscientists will find BrainViewer useful for building understanding beyond the known topography of cortical connectivity.