Continued development of the BrainMap database has been enhanced by collaborations and contributions from a number of different sources.
BrainMap-Funded Collaborators
In the currently funded RO1 (NIMH, Human Brain Project), we solicited participation by three groups. These groups have demonstrated productivity and innovation in coordinate-based meta-analysis algorithms in order to accelerate the pace of tool development:
- Dr. Tomas Paus and Dr. Roberto Toro of the Brain & Body Centre, University of Nottingham, UK
- Dr. Gabriele Lohmann and Dr. Jane Neumann of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany
- Dr. Guinevere Eden and Dr. Joe Maisog of the Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University Medical Center
Sharing BrainMap Software and Taxonomy
BrainMap is not only a vehicle for sharing experimental results (activation locations) and meta-data. It is also a vehicle for sharing software tools and meta-analyses. In addition, one of the aims of the BrainMap project is to share a common taxonomy of experimental design with the HFBM community.
Since BrainMap's taxonomy contains the most advanced and evaluated description of cognitive experiments to date, the Neuroimaging Informatics Technology Initiative (NIfTI) has expressed interest in adopting BrainMap's taxonomy for their data format. To assess the suitability of this, NIfTI suggested that BrainMap first interact and share taxonomy with the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN) so that NIfTI may assess the value and feasibility of a more formal relationship between BrainMap and NIfTI. As a result, BrainMap's interaction with Dr. Jessica Turner and Dr. Steven Potkin of BIRN has proved beneficial to each project and has steadily made progress towards interoperability since March 2004.
In addition, a joint effort has been formed between BrainMap and the FMRIB Software Library (FSL). This collaboration has been made possible with support from a grant from the Department of Trade and Industry of the United Kingdom. FSL, led by Dr. Stephen Smith seeks to incorporate the Talairach Daemon and the ability for perform BrainMap queries into their software's capabilities.
BrainMap would like to thank Peter Turkeltaub of Georgetown University for sharing his ALE meta-analysis algorithm, which was initially incorporated into Search&View and subsequently modified in GingerALE.
BrainMap Submissions
BrainMap would also like to thank all the students (high school, undergraduate, and graduate), post-doctoral fellows, and research assistants who have contributed to BrainMap by coding papers for entry into our database.
San Antonio Area Universities and High Schools:
- UT Health Science Center - Jeremy Bass, Catherine Harris, Brandon Kinney, Sandra Koenig, Janessa Manning, Anna Petersen, Marlon Quinones, Amy Ramage, Hugo Sandoval, Diana Tordesillas-Gutierrez, Hsiao-Ying Wey, Frank Zamarripa
- UT San Antonio - Adir Abramoff, Buky Aworinde, Kate Callahan, Lisa Curry, Heather Gates, Juan Gomez, Kevin Gooden, Kihak Lee, Rupal Patel, Augusto Petacchi, Marlon Quinones, Felipe Salinas, Patrick Shepherd, Patrick Tripp, Tony Villanueva
- UT Austin - Karen Alexander, Rajani Sebastian
- Texas Lutheran University - Ryan Brown, Kimberly Ray, Cody Riedel, Jacob Robbins
- Trinity University - Ricky Castillo, Miranda Martin, Penny Whetstone
- Churchill High School - Jake Feldman, Alice Swanner
- St. Mary's Hall - Sean Sandolowski
- Keystone School - Daniel Fox
Non-Local Universities:
- Central Institute of Mental Health, Germany - Carsten Diener
- Clemson University - Chris Morton
- Ghent University - Ellen Demurie
- Johns Hopkins University - Daniel Simmonds
- Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany - Philipp Kazzer, Ulrich Reinacher
- McGill University - Philippe Chouinard
- Swarthmore University - Tanya Gonzalez
- Tohoku University - Maryam Rostami
- University College London - Matthew Whalley
- University of Caen - Fabrice Crivello
- University of California, Berkley - Karl Li
- University of Cape Town - Jonathan Ipser
- University of Hong Kong - Catherine Lau Chi-Ting
- University of Minnesota - Jenny Ostergren
- University of Tokyo - Junichi Chikazoe
- University of Wisconsin - Andrea Dinndorf, Justin Winter
- Washington University - Becky Coalson
BrainMap Funding History
BrainMap was originally conceived by Dr. Peter Fox in 1987 and received funding from the James S. McDonnell Foundation (1988-1990) for development of the first behavioral coding scheme and a HyperCard-based prototype. BrainMap development was funded by the Office of Naval Research (1991-1992) and by the Montreal-based EJLB Foundation (1992-1996). During this time, the strategy of a centralized database of text and tabular data (not images) accessed via the internet using a GUI with display graphics stored locally on the users' computers was developed and refined. A test set of data (225 papers, 771 experiments, 7863 activation sites) were coded, entered, shared, and used for initial development of the functional volumes modeling (FVM) meta-analysis method (Fox et al., 1997). This instantiation of BrainMap attracted more than 1600 subscribers and supported a peak usage of 12,000 sessions per year (1997-1999).
The National Library of Medicine (R01-LM6858) funded the BrainMap database from June 2000 to May 2003. This funding supported reconstructing the interfaces in Java (for cross-platform operability), extensive refinements of the BrainMap Meta-Data Coding Scheme, recoding the test data set (225 papers) and extending the data to 420 papers (1714 experiments, 14642 locations), and further development of the FVM meta-analysis strategy (Fox et al., 1999; Fox et al., 2001).
A bridge grant from the UTHSC Medical Dean's office funded BrainMap development from June 2004 to May 2005. During funding gaps, bridge support has been provided by the Research Imaging Center.
Currently, BrainMap is funded by the Human Brain Project of the NIMH (R01-MH074457-01A1; PI = Peter T. Fox).
BrainMap Logo and Icons
Lastly, BrainMap would like to thank David Leonardelli of Beauticons for creating our beautiful software icons, splash screens, and website images.
