Mapping The Brain: Allen Institute Launches Observatory To Study Perception And Cognition

If one needed further evidence of the remarkable complexity of the brain, one needs to look no further than the first cache of data released Wednesday by the Seattle-based Allen Institute of for Brain Science. The online repository of 30 terabytes of raw data, collected as part of an ambitious 10-year research plan announced by the institute in 2012, covers 18,000 neurons in four areas of the visual cortex of mice and is already the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind. "No one has ever taken this kind of standardized approach to surveying the active brain at cellular resolution in order to measure how the brain processes information in real time. This is a milestone in our quest to decode how the brain's computations give rise to perception, behavior, and consciousness," Christof Koch, president and chief scientific officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science, said in a statement. "Just like in astronomy, modelers and theoreticians worldwide can now study this wealth of data using their own analysis tools."