SPATIAL-SYMBOLIC BRAIN INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

In the past two decades, new imaging technology has given neurologists noninvasive tools that reveal the structure of the brain with a clarity that is little short of miraculous. At the same time, neuroscientists, usually in animal studies, have developed ways to reveal hundreds of chemical and functional features of the brain that are relevant to human brain function. The problem of integrating new knowledge to the benefit of human patients is exploding in both magnitude and complexity. This project addresses that problem by creating software to test the feasibility and effectiveness of a Brain Information Management System for knowledge obtained from human and nonhuman primate research. The system will allow the most precise possible indexation of written and pictorial information into a knowledge base that is accessible through the standard terminology of the National Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language System. Clinicians and neuroscientists any place in the country will be able to access the system via the World Wide Web to determine what is known about the involvement of any brain structure with any of the characteristics described in the neuroscientific knowledge base. In addition, links directly into websites at other institutions will allow immediate access to relevant information about the clinical significance of specific brain structures. The computerized Brain Information Management System is intended to accelerate the application of basic neuroscientific knowledge in the clinical disciplines of neurosurgery, neurology and neuropsychiatry.