SpineJ: A software tool for quantitative analysis of nanoscale spine morphology

Abstract

Super-resolution microscopy provides diffraction-unlimited optical access to the intricate morphology of neurons in living brain tissue, resolving their finest structural details, which are critical for neuronal function. However, as existing image analysis software tools have been developed for diffraction-limited images, they are generally not well suited for quantifying nanoscale structures like dendritic spines. We present SpineJ, a semi-automatic ImageJ plugin that is specifically designed for this purpose. SpineJ comes with an intuitive and user-friendly graphical user interface, facilitating fast, accurate, and unbiased analysis of spine morphology.