High-resolution digital brain atlases: a Hubble telescope for the brain

We describe implementation of a method for digitizing at microscopic resolution brain tissue sections containing normal and experimental data and for making the content readily accessible online. Web-accessible brain atlases and virtual microscopes for online examination can be developed using existing computer and internet technologies. Resulting databases, made up of hierarchically organized, multiresolution images, enable rapid, seamless navigation through the vast image datasets generated by high-resolution scanning. Tools for visualization and annotation of virtual microscope slides enable remote and universal data sharing. Interactive visualization of a complete series of brain sections digitized at subneuronal levels of resolution offers fine grain and large-scale localization and quantification of many aspects of neural organization and structure. The method is straightforward and replicable; it can increase accessibility and facilitate sharing of neuroanatomical data. It provides an opportunity for capturing and preserving irreplaceable, archival neurohistological collections and making them available to all scientists in perpetuity, if resources could be obtained from hitherto uninterested agencies of scientific support.