This release version of NeuronIQ (Neuron Image Quantitator) software is developed by the Center for Bioengineering and Informatics (CBI, Director: Dr. Stephen Wong), The Methodist Hospital Research Institute. It is a product of interdisciplinary research effort over the years.  The bulk of the development effort was done while Stephen’s group was part of Harvard NeuroDiscovery Center,formally known as the HCNR (Harvard Center for Neurodegeneration and Repair), Harvard Medical School, in close collaboration with Bernardo Sabatini's Laboratory at Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; as well as the consultation with Eric Miller of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Tufts University, Don Adjeroh of the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, West Virginia University, and Karel Svoboda of Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  The software aims to provide an automated pipeline for quantitative, reproducible and accurate interpretation of 3D laser confocal neuron images, in particular, for the detection and analysis of neuron dendritic spines. NeuronIQ is a fully automated tool with several parameters being set before the processing. Thus, it is well suitable for batch processing a large dataset of images with little human interference. This research is also funded by NIH R01 LM009161 Grant to Stephen Wong.

Manual editing function is provided in NeuronIQ. The user can load a specific image and check the result manually after the automated processing. The outliers can be removed one by one, or by dendrite pieces. The detection and measurement results are stored in Excel files. Currently, the measurement of spine numbers, dendrite length, spine density, spine length, width of spine neck, area of spine section, length of spine perimeter, etc. are provided.

NeuronIQ is distributed under the attached license. See http://www.cbi-tmhs.org/Neuroniq/License.htm.