Efficient evaluation of serial sections by iterative Gabor matching

Evaluation of electron microscopic images of serial sections is a time-consuming process requiring a high level of expertise. Here we present an algorithm to ease and accelerate this process. It is a modification of an algorithm successfully used in computer vision for object recognition. However, rather than recognising individual structures, we estimate the spatial mapping of a whole section onto the consecutive one. This mapping is used to transfer labelled information of the very first section, e.g. a classification by a human expert of different visible structures, onto structures visible in the next section. We investigate its performance on an artificially constructed benchmark as well as on real electron microscopic samples taken in primary visual cortex and demonstrate its potential for dramatically facilitating the evaluation process of serial sections.