Neuronal Cell Type Classification using Deep Learning
This work addresses the need for explainable classification of neurons, which is crucial for understanding brain function in health and disease, though it appears incremental by building on existing deep learning methods with added interpretability.
The paper tackles the problem of classifying neuronal cell types from electrophysiological data using a deep learning framework, achieving state-of-the-art results in tasks like excitatory vs. inhibitory neuron classification and transgenic mouse line classification while providing interpretability.
The brain is likely the most complex organ, given the variety of functions it controls, the number of cells it comprises, and their corresponding diversity. Studying and identifying neurons, the brain's primary building blocks, is a crucial milestone and essential for understanding brain function in health and disease. Recent developments in machine learning have provided advanced abilities for classifying neurons. However, these methods remain black boxes with no explainability and reasoning. This paper aims to provide a robust and explainable deep-learning framework to classify neurons based on their electrophysiological activity. Our analysis is performed on data provided by the Allen Cell Types database containing a survey of biological features derived from single-cell recordings of mice and humans. First, we classify neuronal cell types of mice data to identify excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Then, neurons are categorized to their broad types in humans using domain adaptation from mice data. Lastly, neurons are classified into sub-types based on transgenic mouse lines using deep neural networks in an explainable fashion. We show state-of-the-art results in a dendrite-type classification of excitatory vs. inhibitory neurons and transgenic mouse lines classification. The model is also inherently interpretable, revealing the correlations between neuronal types and their electrophysiological properties.