The Digital Brain Bank, an open access platform for post-mortem imaging datasets.

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neuroanatomy
• Digital Pathology

Background:

• Post-mortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) enables high-resolution neuroanatomical investigation and microscopy validation.
• Developing advanced MRI methods is crucial for imaging large post-mortem samples, including whole human brains.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the Digital Brain Bank, a platform for open access to curated, multimodal post-mortem neuroimaging datasets.
• Facilitate cross-scale and cross-species neuroimaging studies by providing diverse datasets.

Main Methods:

• Utilized advanced post-mortem MRI methodology, including diffusion MRI, for whole-brain imaging.
• Developed MRI-microscopy analysis techniques for data validation.
• Curated multimodal datasets for neuroanatomical, comparative neuroanatomy, and neuropathology investigations.

Main Results:

• Released 21 whole-brain diffusion MRI datasets for structural connectivity, including high-resolution human and nonhuman primate data.
• Included one of the largest post-mortem cohort imaging studies in neurodegeneration.
• Integrated microscopy and complementary MRI modalities with diffusion MRI datasets.

Conclusions:

• The Digital Brain Bank provides valuable, open-access resources for the neuroscience community.
• The platform supports detailed neuroanatomical investigations, comparative neuroanatomy, and neuropathology research.
• This initiative advances the integration of post-mortem data into broader neuroimaging studies.