Dynamic Extraction and Tracking of Emitted Cellular Transients resolves low-salience fluorescence events

Abstract

Genetically encoded fluorescent sensors have expanded our ability to image cellular activity and transmitter release. Yet, sparse and low-salience events remain difficult to resolve against complex and fluctuating fluorescence backgrounds. Here we introduce DETECT, Dynamic Extraction and Tracking of Emitted Cellular Transients, which combines adaptive background suppression, probabilistic classification and multi-object tracking to extract fluorescence events while preserving their identity. Across synthetic datasets, DETECT improved detection and segmentation accuracy and reduced computational cost relative to established event-based methods. We validated DETECT across confocal, two-photon and miniscope imaging, ex vivo and in vivo, using calcium indicators and monoamine sensors. Beyond its technical performance, DETECT extends event-based analysis to low-salience fluorescence signals while resolving events spanning broad ranges of amplitude, morphology and dynamics. By resolving spontaneous dopamine and noradrenaline signals as distinct, trackable release events, DETECT reveals the spatiotemporal organization of neuromodulatory activity and provides a broadly applicable approach to quantitative fluorescence analysis.