A computational pipeline to track chromatophores and analyze their dynamics.

ABSTRACT: Cephalopod chromatophores are small dermal neuromuscular organs, each consisting of a pigment-containing cell and 10-20 surrounding radial muscles. Their expansions and contractions, controlled and coordinated by the brain, are used to modify the animal's appearance during camouflaging and signaling. Building up on tools developed by this lab, we propose a flexible computational pipeline to track and analyze chromatophore dynamics from high-resolution videos of behaving cephalopods. This suite of functions, which we call CHROMAS, segments and classifies individual chromatophores, compensates for animal movements and skin deformations, thus enabling precise and parallel measurements of chromatophore dynamics and long-term tracking over development. A high-resolution tool for the analysis of

SUBMITTER: Ukrow J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12303566 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature