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The Connectome
A connectome is a synapse-resolution mapping of connections between all neurons in a model organism's brain. In other words, a synapse-resolution circuit diagram of the brain. Current approaches to mapping the connectomes of model organisms employ serial block face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The only connectome that has been mapped out to date has been from the nematode (roundworm), C. elegans, which has only around 300 neurons. Candidate future connectomes include the fly, with around 10,000 neurons, and the mouse brain, with 100 million neurons.
A projectome is more modest than a connectome, and is defined as a mapping of all inter-areal connections, at the single axon level, within an individual brain.
References
Kasthuri N, Lichtman JW. The Rise of the Projectome. Nat Methods. 2007 Apr;4(4):307-8.
