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Spaceballs step 3: Trace region(s) of interest

Serial section

Select a section from the Working on drop-down menu.

• If you have one section per slide, follow the entire workflow for one section at a time up to the Count Objects step. When you're done counting for that section, click the Add New Section button in the Count Objects step and follow the prompts for the next section.
• If you have multiple sections on a single slide, tracing the regions of interest for all the sections in this step may be more efficient.

Trace your region(s) of interest on the current slide

1. Select a contour type from the Contour drop-down menu.

Name contours after your area of interest to quickly visualize which contour you should use. To change the name of a contour, use the Display Preferences: Contours tab.

2. Trace a contour to delineate a region of interest (use the same contour type for the same region of interest in subsequent sections).
• You can trace more than one contour if you plan on counting different regions of a structure, different structures, or have more than one animal on a slide.

Example: You are counting the Substantia Nigra (SN) and you want to delineate left SN counts separate from the right SN counts. Use a different contour for each side (making sure you use the same contour choices for subsequent sections). The data can then be easily viewed per side or across the entire structure, provided that both sides were counted with the same sampling parameters.

Tracing Options

Choose whether you would like to use the AutoMove area; the AutoMove function moves the stage when you click outside the dotted AutoMove area box while keeping your tracing aligned with the tissue. AutoMove

Choose one of the three tracing methods: Simple Click, Rubber Band Line, or Continuous Line. Tracing Methods

Set microscope to high magnification

See Spaceballs Workflow

Microlucida 3 | MBF Bioscience Support Center | Downloads