Over the past decade, the use of informatics to solve complex neuroscientific problems has increased dramatically. Many of
these research endeavors involve examining large amounts of imaging, behavioral, genetic, neurobiological, and neuropsychiatric
data. Superimposing, processing, visualizing, or interpreting such a complex cohort of datasets frequently becomes a challenge.
We developed a new software environment that allows investigators to integrate multimodal imaging data, hierarchical brain
ontology systems, on-line genetic and phylogenic databases, and 3D virtual data reconstruction models. The Laboratory of Neuro
Imaging visualization environment (LONI Viz) consists of the following components: a sectional viewer for imaging data, an
interactive 3D display for surface and volume rendering of imaging data, a brain ontology viewer, and an external database
query system. The synchronization of all components according to stereotaxic coordinates, region name, hierarchical ontology,
and genetic labels is achieved via a comprehensive
BrainMapper functionality, which directly maps between position, structure name, database, and functional connectivity information. This
environment is freely available, portable, and extensible, and may prove very useful for neurobiologists, neurogenetisists,
brain mappers, and for other clinical, pedagogical, and research endeavors.
Key words Software - ontology - brain - atlas - visualization - gene mapping