BrainMaps is an
NIH
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
-funded interactive zoomable high-resolution digital
brain atlas and
virtual microscope
Virtual microscopy is a method of posting microscope images on, and transmitting them over, computer networks. This allows independent viewing of images by large numbers of people in diverse locations. It involves a synthesis of microscopy technol ...
that is based on more than 140 million megapixels (140 terabytes) of scanned images of serial sections of both primate and non-primate
brain
The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...
s and that is integrated with a high-speed
database
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...
for querying and retrieving data about brain structure and function over the internet.
Currently featured are complete brain atlas datasets for 16 species; a few of which are: ''
Macaca mulatta
The macaques () constitute a genus (''Macaca'') of sociality, gregarious Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. The 23 species of macaques inhabit species distribution, ranges throughout Asia, North Africa, and Europe (in Barbary ma ...
'', ''
Chlorocebus aethiops'', ''
Felis silvestris catus'', ''
Mus musculus
The house mouse (''Mus musculus'') is a small mammal of the rodent family Muridae, characteristically having a pointed snout, large rounded ears, and a long and almost hairless tail. It is one of the most abundant species of the genus ''Mus (genu ...
'', ''
Rattus norvegicus
''Rattus'' is a genus of muroid rodents, all typically called rats. However, the term rat can also be applied to rodent species outside of this genus.
Species and description
The best-known ''Rattus'' species are the black rat (''R. rattus' ...
'', and ''
Tyto alba
The western barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is a species of barn owl ''Tyto'' native to Europe, southwestern Asia, and Africa. It was formerly considered a subspecies group together with barn owls native to other parts of the world, but this classifica ...
''.
The project's
principal investigator was
UC Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
neuroscientist
Ted Jones from 2005 through 2011, after which the role was taken by W. Martin Usrey.
Description
BrainMaps uses multiresolution image formats for representing massive brain images, and a dHTML/Javascript front-end user interface for image navigation, both similar to the way that
Google Maps
Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panorama, interactive panoramic views of streets (Google Street View, Street View ...
works for geospatial data.
BrainMaps is one of the most massive online neuroscience databases and image repositories and features the highest-resolution whole brain atlas ever constructed.
Extensions to interactive 3-dimensional visualization have been developed through
OpenGL
OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...
-based desktop applications. Freely available image analysis tools enable end-users to datamine online images at the sub-neuronal level. BrainMaps has been used in both research
an
didacticsettings.
Additional images
Image:Brainmaps3.jpg, Massive brain images are formatted as multiresolution image pyramids, enabling rapid navigation by loading small image tiles instead of the entire image.
Image:Brainmaps4.jpg, Datasets as a function of species at BrainMaps.
See also
*
List of neuroscience databases
A number of online neuroscience databases are available which provide information regarding gene expression, neurons, macroscopic brain structure, and neurological or psychiatric disorders. Some databases contain descriptive and numerical data, som ...
*
Human Brain Project
The Human Brain Project (HBP) was a €1-billion EU scientific research project that ran for ten years from 2013 to 2023. Using high-performance exascale supercomputers it built infrastructure that allowed researchers to advance knowledge in ...
*
NeuroNames
''NeuroNames'' is an integrated nomenclature for structures in the brain and spinal cord of the four species most studied by neuroscientists: human, macaque, rat and mouse. It offers a standard, controlled vocabulary of common names for structure ...
*
Mouse brain
A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus'' ...
References
External links
{{Commons category, BrainMaps
BrainMaps.org(official website)
BrainMaps featured in ''Science'' MagazineBrainMaps images featured in ''Discover'' Magazine article, "10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Brain"BrainMaps-related Publications(archived 9 May 2012)
Online databases
Anatomy websites
Biological databases