Chapter 3 - The Allen Brain Atlas: Toward Understanding Brain Behavior and Function Through Data Acquisition, Visualization, Analysis, and Integration

Abstract

The Allen Institute for Brain Science was created in 2003 to produce standardized, systematic surveys of gene expression across development in mouse, macaque, and human brains. While the high-throughput method used to collect these data was in itself innovative, publishing the data along with informatics tools designed to visualize and analyze these data in an open science framework created a resource used by neuroscientists globally. Since 2010 the Allen Institute for Brain Science has focused on producing publicly available resources designed to answer more complex questions aimed at addressing brain connectivity and function. This chapter is a review of the data and informatics resources available to the public, as well as a discourse on the power of integrating data modalities to understand and discover fundamental brain properties.