Large-scale comparative neuroimaging: Where are we and what do we need?

Area of Science:

• Comparative neuroscience
• Neuroimaging techniques
• Brain organization

Background:

• Neuroimaging provides fast, whole-brain, repeatable, and multi-modal measurements.
• It allows analysis in living animals and post-mortem tissue.
• Comparative neuroimaging is gaining popularity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the potential of large-scale comparative neuroimaging datasets.
• To investigate principles of brain organization variability across species.
• To identify current obstacles and propose solutions for large-scale data collection.

Main Methods:

• Review of current neuroimaging techniques in comparative neuroscience.
• Analysis of the potential for large-scale, multi-species data collection.
• Exploration of challenges hindering comprehensive brain organization studies.

Main Results:

• Neuroimaging offers advantages over invasive methods for whole-brain analysis.
• Significant potential exists for large-scale datasets to reveal species-wide brain organization principles.
• Current obstacles limit the realization of this potential.

Conclusions:

• Comparative neuroimaging is crucial for understanding brain variability.
• Achieving large-scale, multi-species datasets is a key future goal.
• Addressing current obstacles is necessary to unlock the full potential of the field.