The Smart Atlas: Spatial and Semantic Strategies for Multiscale Integration of Brain Data

This chapter focuses the application of brain cartography to the problem of multiscale integration of brain data in the context of the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) project.The BIRN project focuses on creating a grid infrastructure for integrating data on brain morphology and function obtained by different researchers to support comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms and developing treatment for schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other dementias. One of the project goals is to create an online environment where brain data produced by different groups across multiple techniques can be integrated, accessed and queried. In this chapter, we describe the use of geographical information system technology to create a spatial database of the brain to which diverse data, primarily but not restricted to imaging data, is registered and queried. We discuss the role of terminological ontologies in the Smart Atlas for multiscale queries and for overcoming some of the limitations of purely spatial integration.

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