BrainMaps

BrainMaps is an NIH-funded interactive zoomable high-resolution digital brain atlas and virtual microscope that is based on more than 20 million megapixels (50 terabytes) of scanned images of serial sections of both primate and non-primate brains and that is integrated with a high-speed database for querying and retrieving data about brain structure and function over the internet. .

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 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. [cite journal | last = Mikula | first = S | coauthors = Trotts I, Stone JM, Jones EG | date = 2007 | title = Internet-enabled high-resolution brain mapping and virtual microscopy | journal = NeuroImage | url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=17229579 | pmid = 17229579 ]

Extensions to interactive 3-dimensional visualization have been developed through OpenGL-based desktop applications. [cite journal | last = Trotts | first = I | coauthors = Mikula S, Jones EG | date = 2007 | title = Interactive visualization of multiresolution image stacks in 3D | journal = NeuroImage | url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=17336095 | pmid = 17336095 ] Freely available image analysis tools enable end-users to datamine online images at the sub-neuronal level. BrainMaps has been used in both research [cite journal | last = Mikula | first = S | coauthors = Manger PR, Jones EG | date = 2007 | title = Review. The thalamus of the monotremes: cyto- and myeloarchitecture and chemical neuroanatomy | journal = Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci | url = http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=17553780 | pmid = 17553780 | doi = 10.1098/rstb.2007.2133 | volume = 1 | pages = -1 ] and [http://ect.downstate.edu/cortex_exercise/ didactic] settings.

The project is lead by Ted Jones and Shawn Mikula at the University of California, Davis .

References

External links

* [http://brainmaps.org BrainMaps.org]
* [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/311/5768/1685e?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=brainmaps&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT BrainMaps featured in "Science" Magazine]
* [http://discovermagazine.com/2007/aug/unsolved-brain-mysteries BrainMaps images featured in "Discover" Magazine article, "10 Unsolved Mysteries Of The Brain"]
* [http://brainmaps.org/index.php?p=publications BrainMaps-related Publications]