Fig. 1.

a, d Sample confocal and 2-photon microscope image stacks from two different laboratories (Trachtenberg and Potter labs, respectively) shown as average-intensity projections and in reverse so hyperfluorescent regions appear dark, and background appears light. b, e Results of image pre-processing. c, f The results of automatic dendritic topology delineation (traces of neurite backbones) and spine detection produced by our algorithms. These are shown enlarged for the selected boxed regions indicated in Panels B & E. The backbone traces are shown in blue and the spines are displayed in red