Event Abstract Back to Event What clustering can teach us about the basal forebrain cholinergic system Zoltan Nadasdy1*, Peter Varsanyi2 and Laszlo Zaborszky2 1 University Medical Center and Dept. of Psychology, Seton Brain and Spine Institute and University of Texas at Austin, United States 2 Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, United States Large populations of neurons within brain systems are organized in functional subgroups, which are often difficult to define. To uncover these subgroups by using anatomical methods within considered-to-be "diffuse" structures such as the basal forebrain cholinergic system is a challenging computational task. We utilized the principle that functionally related groups of neurons often clamp together by forming clusters of cell bodies. To detect such groups of neurons from 3D histological data, we developed a clustering method that provides a description of detected cell clusters that is quantitative and amenable to visual exploration. This method is based on bubble clustering. Our implementation consists of three steps: (i) an initial data exploration for scanning the clustering parameter space; (ii) determination of the optimal clustering parameters; (iii) final clustering. We designed this algorithm to flexibly detect clusters without assumptions about the underlying cell distribution within a cluster or the number and sizes of clusters. We implemented the clustering function as an integral part of the neuroanatomical data visualization software Virtual RatBrain (http://www.virtualratbrain.org). We applied this algorithm to the basal forebrain cholinergic system, which consists of a diffuse but inhomogeneous population of neurons (Zaborszky, 1992). With this clustering method, we confirmed the inhomogeneity cholinergic neurons, defined cell clusters, quantified and localized them, and determined the cell density within clusters. Furthermore, by applying the clustering method to multiple specimens from both rat and monkey, we found that clusters in the basal forebrain cholinergic system display remarkable cross-species preservation of cell density within clusters. This method is efficient not only for clustering cell body distributions but may also be used to study other distributed neuronal structural elements, including synapses, receptors, dendritic spines and molecular markers. Grant Support: NIH/NS023945 to L.Z. Conference: Neuroinformatics 2010 , Kobe, Japan, 30 Aug - 1 Sep, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: General neuroinformatics Citation: Nadasdy Z, Varsanyi P and Zaborszky L (2010). What clustering can teach us about the basal forebrain cholinergic system. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: Neuroinformatics 2010 . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.13.00020 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 09 Jun 2010; Published Online: 09 Jun 2010. * Correspondence: Zoltan Nadasdy, University Medical Center and Dept. of Psychology, Seton Brain and Spine Institute and University of Texas at Austin, Austin, United States, zoltan@utexas.edu Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Zoltan Nadasdy Peter Varsanyi Laszlo Zaborszky Google Zoltan Nadasdy Peter Varsanyi Laszlo Zaborszky Google Scholar Zoltan Nadasdy Peter Varsanyi Laszlo Zaborszky PubMed Zoltan Nadasdy Peter Varsanyi Laszlo Zaborszky Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.