51. Initiatives and projects for collaboration in neuroinformatics

Abstract

Sharing of electrophysiology data, related metadata, processing methods and workflows is one of the crucial tasks in neuroinformatics. International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) develops and maintains computational infrastructure for neuroscientists and INCF Programs address infrastructural issues of high importance to the neuroscience community. The INCF program “Standard for data sharing – Electrophysiology Task Force” deals with collection of requirements for developing the data format that could be accepted and widely shared within the community. To enable collaboration through the sharing of neuroscience data, INCF also introduced the INCF Dataspace that associates data sources in a distributed system based on iRods solution. The Czech National Node for Neuroinformatics (CNNN) is currently focused on two main topics. The first one deals with higher reliability of interactions of human subjects, artificial systems and their alliances. Theoretical knowledge is applied in transportation area; relations between the components of the EEG alpha rhythm and attention levels of relevant subjects are investigated. The Node also continues in building of complex hardware and software infrastructure for research in electrophysiology. A catalog server connected to INCF Dataspace and a node server for EEG/ERP domain (a subnode of the catalog server) were established. The Node members also work in an international group developing the Ontology for describing Experimental Neurophysiology (OEN). The EEG/ERP Portal (EEGBase) is a web-based system that enables researchers to store, manage, share, and process data and metadata from EEG/ERP experiments ( EEG/ERP Portal (EEGBase), 2014 ). The portal also enables users to work in research groups, define metadata, and run methods for discrete signal processing. Users may have different roles in the system and the related level of authority. The EEG/ERP Portal was registered as a neuroscience resource within the Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF); direct access to the services implemented in the EEG/ERP Portal is ensured through the NIF interface. Off-line and mobile versions of the portal are also available. A programmable hardware stimulator that allows users to create various experiments and use the combined stimulation (acoustic and visual) was designed and developed. The stimulator is portable and can be connected to conventional equipment. Acknowledgments The work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), Project “NTIS - New Technologies for Information Society”, European Centre of Excellence, CZ.1.05/1.1.00/02.0090.