Exercises in Anatomy, Connectivity, and Morphology using Neuromorpho.org and the Allen Brain Atlas

Laboratory instruction of neuroscience is often limited by the lack of physical resources and supplies (e.g., brains specimens, dissection kits, physiological equipment). Online databases can serve as supplements to material labs by providing professionally collected images of brain specimens and their underlying cellular populations with resolution and quality that is extremely difficult to access for strictly pedagogical purposes. We describe a method using two online databases, the Neuromorpho.org and the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA), that freely provide access to data from working brain scientists that can be modified for laboratory instruction/exercises. Neuromorpho.org is the first neuronal morphology database that provides qualitative and quantitative data from reconstructed cells analyzed in published scientific reports. The Neuromorpho.org database contains cross species and multiple neuronal phenotype datasets which allows for comparative examinations. The ABA provides modules that allow students to study the anatomy of the rodent brain, as well as observe the different cellular phenotypes that exist using histochemical labeling. Using these tools in conjunction, advanced students can ask questions about qualitative and quantitative neuronal morphology, then examine the distribution of the same cell types across the entire brain to gain a full appreciation of the magnitude of the brain's complexity.