Quantcast
ZME Science
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    Menu
    Natural Sciences
    Health
    History & Humanities
    Space & Astronomy
    Technology
    Culture
    Resources
    Natural Sciences

    Physics

    • Matter and Energy
    • Quantum Mechanics
    • Thermodynamics

    Chemistry

    • Periodic Table
    • Applied Chemistry
    • Materials
    • Physical Chemistry

    Biology

    • Anatomy
    • Biochemistry
    • Ecology
    • Genetics
    • Microbiology
    • Plants and Fungi

    Geology and Paleontology

    • Planet Earth
    • Earth Dynamics
    • Rocks and Minerals
    • Volcanoes
    • Dinosaurs
    • Fossils

    Animals

    • Mammals
    • Birds
    • Fish
    • Reptiles
    • Amphibians
    • Invertebrates
    • Pets
    • Conservation
    • Animals Facts

    Climate and Weather

    • Climate Change
    • Weather and Atmosphere

    Geography

    Mathematics

    Health
    • Drugs
    • Diseases and Conditions
    • Human Body
    • Mind and Brain
    • Food and Nutrition
    • Wellness
    History & Humanities
    • Anthropology
    • Archaeology
    • Economics
    • History
    • People
    • Sociology
    Space & Astronomy
    • The Solar System
    • The Sun
    • The Moon
    • Planets
    • Asteroids, Meteors and Comets
    • Astronomy
    • Astrophysics
    • Cosmology
    • Exoplanets and Alien Life
    • Spaceflight and Exploration
    Technology
    • Computer Science & IT
    • Engineering
    • Inventions
    • Sustainability
    • Renewable Energy
    • Green Living
    Culture
    • Culture and Society
    • Bizarre Stories
    • Lifestyle
    • Art and Music
    • Gaming
    • Books
    • Movies and Shows
    Resources
    • How To
    • Science Careers
    • Metascience
    • Fringe Science
    • Science Experiments
    • School and Study
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result

Home → Science → Neurology

The Brain Wikipedia – Scientists Launch Open-Access Neuron Database

The human brain is one of the biggest and most intriguing mysteries scientists are tackling. It's an incredibly active, bustling place that keeps us going and effectively makes us the people we are. There are about 100 billion neurons processing and transmitting information through electrical and chemical signals and to make things even more complicated, each of these neurons has about 10,000 different connections to neighboring brain cells.

Mihai Andrei by Mihai Andrei
April 6, 2015
in Neurology, News

The human brain is one of the biggest and most intriguing mysteries scientists are tackling. It’s an incredibly active, bustling place that keeps us going and effectively makes us the people we are. There are about 100 billion neurons processing and transmitting information through electrical and chemical signals and to make things even more complicated, each of these neurons has about 10,000 different connections to neighboring brain cells. Needless to say, mapping and understanding all these neurons and connections is a gargantuan task – that’s why computer scientists and biologists from Carnegie Mellon University in the US have created an open-access database indexing all the known physiological information about neurons.

Image via CG Trader.

Basically, they’ve developed a wiki-like system called NeuroElectro (website here).

“The goal of the NeuroElectro Project is to extract information about the electrophysiological properties (e.g. resting membrane potentials and membrane time constants) of diverse neuron types from the existing literature and place it into a centralized database”.

I took a look at the website, and I have to say, it’s a fantastic achievement. The design is pleasant, information is easy to access (if you know what you’re looking for), and speaking of information – there’s a LOT of it. The roughly 300 types of neurons are arranged, discussed and presented in an almost exhaustive fashion.

The database was created by computational neuroscientist, Shreejoy J. Tripathy, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, who analyzed almost 10,000 published papers describing how neurons react to various inputs. He then used text-mining algorithms to ‘read’ each of the papers, retrieving information on how they function, how they respond, and how the data was gathered. The work isn’t finished, and until now, he “only” managed to characterize 100 types of neurons; the algorithms he used are also not perfect, so he had to complement it with a lot of manual checking and validation.

“If we want to think about building a brain or re-engineering the brain, we need to know what parts we’re working with,” said Nathan Urban, director of the Carnegie Mellon’s BrainHub neuroscience initiative, in a press release.

“We know a lot about neurons in some areas of the brain, but very little about neurons in others. To accelerate our understanding… we need to be able to easily determine whether what we already know about some neurons can be applied to others we know less about.”

The database, as well as the techniques used to create it (and future plans for improvement) are described in the Journal of Neurophysiology. It’s a great achievement, and a great tool for many researchers working in the field.

“It’s a dynamic environment in which people can collect, refine and add data,” Urban said of the NeuroElecto database. “It will be a useful resource to people doing neuroscience research all over the world.“

Via Science Alert.

Was this helpful?


Thanks for your feedback!

Related posts:
  1. Is Wikipedia accurate? Study shows Wikipedia’s Accuracy is 99.5%
  2. Italian Wikipedia blanked out temporarily in protest of SOPA, whole Wikipedia considers the same thing
  3. Largest database of crystal surfaces and shapes can help researchers design better materials
  4. European funders worth $8.8-billion annually force scientists to publish in open access journals starting in 2020
  5. Massive database of of 1,500 stem cell lines derived from diseased cells set to aid drug development
Tags: data miningneuron

ADVERTISEMENT
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • More
  • About Us

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Features
    • Natural Sciences
    • Health
    • History and Humanities
    • Space & Astronomy
    • Culture
    • Technology
    • Resources
  • Reviews
  • More
    • Agriculture
    • Anthropology
    • Biology
    • Chemistry
    • Electronics
    • Geology
    • History
    • Mathematics
    • Nanotechnology
    • Economics
    • Paleontology
    • Physics
    • Psychology
    • Robotics
  • About Us
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2021 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t you want to get smarter every day?

YES, sign me up!

Over 35,000 subscribers can’t be wrong. Don’t worry, we never spam. By signing up you agree to our privacy policy.

✕
ZME Science News

FREE
VIEW