Collaborative Research: Accessing Comparative Brain Collections

这个合作项目整合了两个主要的比较脊椎动物脑材料集，并使其更容易用于研究。这些收藏来自威斯康辛大学和密歇根州立大学，包含超过275个切片和染色的大脑，代表了来自17个不同目的哺乳动物50个分类科的150多个物种，被选中用于研究和进化意义。这些脑库包含50多万个切片，装在显微镜载玻片上，是独一无二的，无价的，几十年来投入了数百万美元的准备投资。它们是世界上通过标准化技术制备的同类标本中数量最多的，其中包含许多稀有和濒危物种的标本，这些标本永远无法复制。该项目将提高这些样本对神经科学研究和教育的可及性。新的光学和电子技术被用来制作一份收藏目录，以宣传和促进这些材料供研究使用。这个目录的制作，以及随后将这两个馆藏一起转移到华盛顿特区，与其他主要的人类大脑标本馆藏一起，将是将一个主要的神经科学资源整合到一个站点的第一步，具有足够的研究设施。进一步的计划包括在全球范围内以电子方式传播目录，以便对各种大脑的总体外观和整体组织进行一些研究，并决定是否亲自参观收藏以进行更详细的直接研究。这些有价值的标本的保存、稳定和集中将产生重大的长期影响，而不仅仅是比较神经科学，并将为美国国家科学基金会对大脑十年做出独特的贡献。

This collaborative project integrates and makes more accessible for research two major collections of comparative vertebrate brain material. These collections, at the University of Wisconsin and at Michigan State University, contain over 275 sectioned and stained brains representing more than 150 species, from 50 taxonomic families from 17 different orders of mammals, selected for their research and evolutionary significance. These brain libraries, containing more than half a million sections mounted on microscope slides, are unique and priceless, involving a preparation investment of millions of dollars over decades. They are the largest collection of their kind in the world prepared by standardized techniques, and contain samples from many rare and now endangered species that could never be duplicated. This project will enhance the accessibility of these samples for neuroscience research and education. New optical and electronic techniques are used to produce a catalog of the collections to publicize and promote the availability of this material for study. Production of this catalog, and subsequent transfer of the two collections together to the Washington DC area to join other major collections of human brain specimens, will be first steps toward integrating a major neuroscience resource in a single site, with adequate research facilities. Further plans include electronic dissemination of the catalog internationally, to allow some study of the general appearance and overall organization of a variety of brains, and decisions about whether to visit the collections themselves for more detailed direct study. The preservation, stabilization and centralization of these valuable specimen will have a major long-term impact beyond simply comparative neuroscience, and will provide a unique contribution by NSF to the Decade of the Brain.