Neuroscience
Growing up in the internet age, most of us are very familiar with network diagrams of all sorts. Indeed, this is also the age of the network. But surprisingly, while there are diagrams for almost every type of network you can conceive of, there is a remarkable lack of such diagrams for whole-brain connectivity. Why is that? The closest anyone has come has been limited to cortical connectivity diagrams (Felleman and van Essen (1991), Malcolm Young, Kotter et al, etc), and in those cases, the connectivity data was either outdated, incomplete, or both.
I have recently noticed whole-brain connectivity diagrams at BrainMaps.org, and although it still appears to be a work in progress, the results thus far seem fairly impressive. It remains to be seen whether the graphing methods they are employing will scale to deal with hundreds of nodes with thousands of edges.
UPDATE!!! Interactive visualization of brain connectivity in 3D! According to the Download Page:
Welcome to nodes3D, a 3D graph visualization program written by Issac Trotts in consultation with Shawn Mikula, in the labs of Edward G. Jones. On startup, nodes3d will download a graph of gross neuroanatomical connectivity from the MySQL database at brainmaps.org. Also supports loading of graphs from files or other databases.
Very Cool!
- What Is A Brain Area?
What is a "brain area"? More recently, I have become aware of the inadequateness of the concept of "brain area", or at any rate, to call into question the basis for such a concept. This basis is three-fold, as noted by Felleman/van Essen: cortical areas...
- Beyond Brainmaps.org
As the principal architect of BrainMaps.org, starting with its public launch on May 17, 2005, and ending with my (literally) moving onto new vistas in June, 2009, I can say that it has been an exciting and worthwhile journey. The community of active data...
- Brainmaps.org Featured On The Cover Of Neuroimage
- Shawn Mikula BrainMaps.org was featured on the March 15, 2007, cover of NeuroImage for the article entitled, "Internet-Enabled High-Resolution Brain Mapping and Virtual Microscopy". This is only the beginning. BrainMaps.org is far more than a cool...
- About This Blog
Side view of my brain based on MRI. It's not really blue Since Blogger does not allow HTML in the 'About Me' section, I thought it good to make a separate post, to let readers know a little about one of the people behind BrainMaps.org. I do...
- Nih Videocast: Network Neuroscience
From the 17th of May, 2010: Network Neuroscience - Connectivity and Dynamics of the Human Brain by Dr. Olaf Sporns View the presentation "Nervous systems are complex networks of interconnected neural elements that engage in spontaneous or evoked dynamics....
Neuroscience
Visualization of Whole-Brain Connectivity
Growing up in the internet age, most of us are very familiar with network diagrams of all sorts. Indeed, this is also the age of the network. But surprisingly, while there are diagrams for almost every type of network you can conceive of, there is a remarkable lack of such diagrams for whole-brain connectivity. Why is that? The closest anyone has come has been limited to cortical connectivity diagrams (Felleman and van Essen (1991), Malcolm Young, Kotter et al, etc), and in those cases, the connectivity data was either outdated, incomplete, or both. I have recently noticed whole-brain connectivity diagrams at BrainMaps.org, and although it still appears to be a work in progress, the results thus far seem fairly impressive. It remains to be seen whether the graphing methods they are employing will scale to deal with hundreds of nodes with thousands of edges.
UPDATE!!! Interactive visualization of brain connectivity in 3D! According to the Download Page:
Welcome to nodes3D, a 3D graph visualization program written by Issac Trotts in consultation with Shawn Mikula, in the labs of Edward G. Jones. On startup, nodes3d will download a graph of gross neuroanatomical connectivity from the MySQL database at brainmaps.org. Also supports loading of graphs from files or other databases.
Very Cool!
- What Is A Brain Area?
What is a "brain area"? More recently, I have become aware of the inadequateness of the concept of "brain area", or at any rate, to call into question the basis for such a concept. This basis is three-fold, as noted by Felleman/van Essen: cortical areas...
- Beyond Brainmaps.org
As the principal architect of BrainMaps.org, starting with its public launch on May 17, 2005, and ending with my (literally) moving onto new vistas in June, 2009, I can say that it has been an exciting and worthwhile journey. The community of active data...
- Brainmaps.org Featured On The Cover Of Neuroimage
- Shawn Mikula BrainMaps.org was featured on the March 15, 2007, cover of NeuroImage for the article entitled, "Internet-Enabled High-Resolution Brain Mapping and Virtual Microscopy". This is only the beginning. BrainMaps.org is far more than a cool...
- About This Blog
Side view of my brain based on MRI. It's not really blue Since Blogger does not allow HTML in the 'About Me' section, I thought it good to make a separate post, to let readers know a little about one of the people behind BrainMaps.org. I do...
- Nih Videocast: Network Neuroscience
From the 17th of May, 2010: Network Neuroscience - Connectivity and Dynamics of the Human Brain by Dr. Olaf Sporns View the presentation "Nervous systems are complex networks of interconnected neural elements that engage in spontaneous or evoked dynamics....