AUTHOR=Brito Juan , Mata Susana , Bayona Sofia , Pastor Luis , DeFelipe Javier , Benavides Piccione Ruth TITLE=Neuronize: a tool for building realistic neuronal cell morphologies JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroanatomy VOLUME=7 YEAR=2013 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroanatomy/articles/10.3389/fnana.2013.00015 DOI=10.3389/fnana.2013.00015 ISSN=1662-5129 ABSTRACT=

This study presents a tool, Neuronize, for building realistic three-dimensional models of neuronal cells from the morphological information extracted through computer-aided tracing applications. Neuronize consists of a set of methods designed to build 3D neural meshes that approximate the cell membrane at different resolution levels, allowing a balance to be reached between the complexity and the quality of the final model. The main contribution of the present study is the proposal of a novel approach to build a realistic and accurate 3D shape of the soma from the incomplete information stored in the digitally traced neuron, which usually consists of a 2D cell body contour. This technique is based on the deformation of an initial shape driven by the position and thickness of the first order dendrites. The addition of a set of spines along the dendrites completes the model, building a final 3D neuronal cell suitable for its visualization in a wide range of 3D environments.