Accurate Neuronal Soma Segmentation Using 3D Multi-Task Learning U-Shaped Fully Convolutional Neural Networks

Autor: Tianyu Hu, Xiaofeng Xu, Shangbin Chen, Qian Liu
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Frontiers in Neuroanatomy, Vol 14 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1662-5129
DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2020.592806
Popis: Neuronal soma segmentation is a crucial step for the quantitative analysis of neuronal morphology. Automated neuronal soma segmentation methods have opened up the opportunity to improve the time-consuming manual labeling required during the neuronal soma morphology reconstruction for large-scale images. However, the presence of touching neuronal somata and variable soma shapes in images brings challenges for automated algorithms. This study proposes a neuronal soma segmentation method combining 3D U-shaped fully convolutional neural networks with multi-task learning. Compared to existing methods, this technique applies multi-task learning to predict the soma boundary to split touching somata, and adopts U-shaped architecture convolutional neural network which is effective for a limited dataset. The contour-aware multi-task learning framework is applied to the proposed method to predict the masks of neuronal somata and boundaries simultaneously. In addition, a spatial attention module is embedded into the multi-task model to improve neuronal soma segmentation results. The Nissl-stained dataset captured by the micro-optical sectioning tomography system is used to validate the proposed method. Following comparison to four existing segmentation models, the proposed method outperforms the others notably in both localization and segmentation. The novel method has potential for high-throughput neuronal soma segmentation in large-scale optical imaging data for neuron morphology quantitative analysis.
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