Semi-Automated Dendrogram Generation for Neural Shape Analysis

Roberto Marcondes Cesar Junior
Luciano da Fontoura Costa

Cybernetic Vision Research Group
GII - IFSC - University of São Paulo - São Carlos, SP

Abstract. This work introduces a new framework for shape characterization of neural cells by semi-automated generation of dendrograms, which are abstract structures describing different aspects associated to the branching nature of dendrites in neurons. Particularly, the dendrograms generated by the proposed method represents the branching structure of neurons in terms of the length of each dendritic segment. The new method, which is based on multiscale curvature contour segmentation and syntactic shape analysis, is robust and greatly improve the tiresome task of dendrogram extraction, traditionally performed by human operators. Results corroborating the effectiveness of the technique are also presented.

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