Neurodata Without Borders (NWB) is a data standard for neurophysiology that provides neuroscientists with a common standard to share, archive, use, and build common analysis tools for neurophysiology data.

The Neuroimaging Data Model (NIDM) is a collection of specification documents that define extensions the W3C PROV standard for the domain of human brain mapping. NIDM uses provenance information as means to link components from different stages of the scientific research process from dataset descriptors and computational workflow, to derived data and publication.

Neuroscience Information Exchange (NIX) Format data model allows storing fully annotated scientific datasets, i.e. the data together with rich metadata and their relations in a consistent, comprehensive format. Its aim is to achieve standardization by providing a common data structure and APIs for a multitude of data types and use cases, focused on but not limited to neuroscience. In contrast to most other approaches, the NIX approach is to achieve this flexibility with a minimum set of data model elements.

Computational models provide a framework for integrating data across spatial scales and for exploring hypotheses about the biological mechanisms underlying neuronal and network dynamics. However, as models increase in complexity, additional barriers emerge to the creation, exchange, and re-use of models. Successful projects have created standards for describing complex models in neuroscience and provide open source tools to address these issues. This lecture provides an overview of these projects and make a case for expanded use of resources in support of reproducibility and validation of models against experimental data.

The Mouse Phenome Database (MPD) provides access to primary experimental trait data, genotypic variation, protocols and analysis tools for mouse genetic studies. Data are contributed by investigators worldwide and represent a broad scope of phenotyping endpoints and disease-related traits in naïve mice and those exposed to drugs, environmental agents or other treatments. MPD ensures rigorous curation of phenotype data and supporting documentation using relevant ontologies and controlled vocabularies. As a repository of curated and integrated data, MPD provides a means to access/re-use baseline data, as well as allows users to identify sensitized backgrounds for making new mouse models with genome editing technologies, analyze trait co-inheritance, benchmark assays in their own laboratories, and many other research applications. MPD’s primary source of funding is NIDA. For this reason, a majority of MPD data is neuro- and behavior-related.

GeneWeaver is a web application for the integrated cross-species analysis of functional genomics data to find convergent evidence from heterogeneous sources. The application consists of a large database of gene sets curated from multiple public data resources and curated submissions, along with a suite of analysis tools designed to allow flexible, customized workflows through web-based interactive analysis or scripted API driven analysis. Gene sets come from multiple widely studied species and include ontology annotations, brain gene expression atlases, systems genetic study results, gene regulatory information, pathway databases, drug interaction databases and many other sources. Users can retrieve, store, analyze and share gene sets through a graded access system. Analysis tools are based on combinatorics and statistical methods for comparing, contrasting, and classifying gene sets based on their members.

GeneWeaver is a web application for the integrated cross-species analysis of functional genomics data to find convergent evidence from heterogeneous sources. The application consists of a large database of gene sets curated from multiple public data resources and curated submissions, along with a suite of analysis tools designed to allow flexible, customized workflows through web-based interactive analysis or scripted API driven analysis. Gene sets come from multiple widely studied species and include ontology annotations, brain gene expression atlases, systems genetic study results, gene regulatory information, pathway databases, drug interaction databases and many other sources. Users can retrieve, store, analyze and share gene sets through a graded access system. Analysis tools are based on combinatorics and statistical methods for comparing, contrasting and classifying gene sets based on their members.

Longitudinal Online Research and Imaging System (LORIS) is a web-based data and project management software for neuroimaging research studies. It is an open source framework for storing and processing behavioural, clinical, neuroimaging and genetic data. LORIS also makes it easy to manage large datasets acquired over time in a longitudinal study, or at different locations in a large multi-site study.

This talk highlights a set of platform technologies, software, and data collections that close and shorten the feedback cycle in research. 

An agent for reproducible neuroimaging

The Human Connectome Project aims to provide an unparalleled compilation of neural data, an interface to graphically navigate this data and the opportunity to achieve never before realized conclusions about the living human brain.

The Identifiers.org system is a central infrastructure for findable, accessible, interoperable and re-usable (FAIR) data. It provides a range of services to generate, resolve and validate persistent Compact Identifiers to promote the citability of individual data providers and integration with e-infrastructures.

Web annotation provides a powerful new capability to biomedicine. With Hypothes.is, any content on the web can be turned into an interactive forum for on-line discussions or annotated with additional information. Because Hypothes.is is engineered for the web, annotations can be replied to, shared and searched across contexts. Hypothesis supports public, private and group annotation.

EEGLAB is an interactive Matlab toolbox for processing continuous and event-related EEG, MEG and other electrophysiological data incorporating independent component analysis (ICA), time/frequency analysis, artifact rejection, event-related statistics, and several useful modes of visualization of the averaged and single-trial data. EEGLAB runs under Linux, Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X.