Abstract
The brain consists of various brain regions, and each brain region has specific functions such as motor regulation, sensory perception and cognitive function. Although a number of cellular mechanisms underlying brain functions have been revealed by focusing on specific local brain areas, systems analysis of the whole brain is a prerequisite to further understand the functional and anatomical relationships of the brain and their alterations in neuropsychiatric disorders. To illustrate whole-brain structural and functional maps at cellular and subcellular resolutions, whole-brain imaging techniques using fluorescent microscopy have been recently developed together with quantitative analysis methods for the whole-brain data. These state-of-the-art imaging analyses are currently used for brain-wide neuronal projection mapping, cell-type specific mapping and neuronal activation mapping, and such analyses are applicable to pathological studies using animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders. Unbiased and hypothesis-free comparison across the whole brain is expected to identify network mechanisms that regulate various neurobiological functions and dysfunctions.
