Introducing an open-source database of non-human primate brain scans

An international team of researchers, that includes members of the Roelfsema group, has released the first open-source data sets of non-human primate brain imaging. In the accompanying paper, ‘An Open Resource for Non-human Primate Imaging’ published in the journal Neuron, the researchers present details about the rationale, design, and procedures for the PRIMatE Data Exchange (PRIME-DE) consortium, an open science resource for the neuroimaging community that aims to aggregate and share anatomical, functional and diffusion MRI data sets from laboratories around the world. The goal is to accelerate the development of a map of the neural connections in the non-human primate brain — and, ultimately, the human brain — in an effort to develop biomarkers for mental health disorders and other brain disorders and diseases.

In the paper, the researchers present details of 25 independent data collections aggregated across 22 sites around the world. The study also outlines the unique pitfalls and challenges that should be considered in the analysis of the non-human primate MRI datasets, including providing automated quality assessment of the contributed datasets.

The new database can be accessed online at:
http://fcon_1000.projects.nitrc.org/indi/indiPRIME.html