Exploring the connectome: Petascale volume visualization of microscopy data streams

Reconstructing the human connectome is one of the 21st century’s major scientific en-deavors. By deciphering the human brain’s neural circuits, comprising billions of neurons and their interconnections (synapses), connectomics researchers hope to improve their understand-ing of brain function as well as pathologies such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism. However, the mammalian connectome is im-mensely complex, and the huge amount of imaging data that must be acquired, stored, and processed presents a big challenge for neuroscientists. For example, the C. elegans worm’s connec-tome, consisting of a mere 30