John I. Johnson - US grants

There are two priceless neuroanatomical collections of a range of mammalian brains, representing more than 120 species and all the major groups of mammals, including some now rare or endangered species. This project is the first step in making an electronically available catalog of all this material on video discs. Tests will be used to decide which is the best means of producing and storing quality images of the thousands of prepared tissue slides, with adequate visual resolution for anatomical work. The potential impact of a new accessibility of this irreplaceable tissue for research and teaching is enormous, providing excellent anatomical information on rare or endangered species already preserved without sacrificing any more specimens, wide distribution of data to any interested researcher, and illustrations for instructional programs. This work also may provide a model for helping other collections move into electronically accessible formats.

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.

To understand brain function, we need to understand brain structure. The evolution of mammals has led to many differences in brain anatomy, but we know very little how those differences correlate to the wide diversity of animal behavior. This collaborative project is to consolidate and make more accessible for research and education two major collections that form a unique, extensive, remarkably preserved assembly of comparative mammalian brain specimens. Together they contain more than 275 sectioned and stained brains, including over a half million microscope slides, representing over 150 species, from 50 Families in 17 different Orders of Mammalia. Many specimens are irreplaceable, from rare or endangered species, and so can provide critically unique data for questions about biodiversity. The collections are being brought to a national museum facility in Washington DC to join complementary extensive human brain collections, and so establish a single site for storage, curation, and research on comparative mammalian brain neuroanatomy. An electronic/website also is being developed, including several selected images, which researchers could access worldwide for data, or use to evaluate whether to make a research visit to the site itself to examine the original material. The impact of this project is high. First, it safely preserves for future research an irreplaceable resource that also represents a scientific investment of more than 50 years of exacting work by dozens of people. Second, it promotes multidisciplinary research on comparative neuroscience, behavior, and systematics to understand the diversity in the most complex organ known, adding computational expertise for technological development of digital imaging and multidimensional databases. Third, it provides a working base as well as a model for sharing complex morphological data with other collections, such as those on non-mammalian vertebrate brains. Fourth, the project will have educati onal as well as research impact by providing easy website access to information about the vertebrate brain in the context of biodiversity.

Knowledge of brain structure is essential to understand brain function. The evolution of mammals has resulted in many differences in brain anatomy, but we know very little about how those differences correlate to the wide diversity of animal behavior. This collaborative project is to consolidate and make more accessible for research and education two major collections that form a unique, extensive, remarkably preserved assembly of mammalian brain specimens for comparative and evolutionary studies. Together they contain more than 275 sectioned and stained brains, including over a half million microscope slides, representing over 150 species, from 50 families in 17 different orders of Mammalia. Many specimens are irreplaceable, from rare or endangered species, and provide critically unique data for questions about biodiversity and evolution as well as neuroscience. The collections are being brought to a national museum facility in Washington DC to join complementary extensive human brain collections and establish a single site with long-term stability for storage, curation, and research on comparative mammalian brain neuroanatomy. An electronic website is being developed for worldwide access to images. Researchers can use the images directly, or decide whether to visit the museum itself to examine the original preserved biological material. The impact of this project is high. First, it safely preserves for future research an irreplaceable resource that represents a scientific investment of more than 50 years of exacting work by dozens of people. Second, it promotes multidisciplinary research on comparative neuroscience, behavior, evolution and systematics to understand the diversity in the most complex organ known. Third, using technology of digital imaging and multidimensional databases, it provides a working base as well as a model for how to handle and share complex morphological data with other collections, including those on non-mammalian vertebrate brains. Fourth, the project will continue to have educational impact by providing easy website access for schools and informal science education about the vertebrate brain in the context of biodiversity.

Scientists who study the evolution of specialized bodies, behaviors, and the brains that drive them, need to know about ever increasing numbers and varieties of specimens and data that are becoming available, and how to gain access to them. To promote this learning, a conference is being held where researchers and students will share information about world resources of specimens and data, especially those that are not well publicized. Investigators will exhibit the latest in technology for learning about brains and related behaviors, along with novel and often surprising findings, obtained using new techniques including brain scans, analyses of gene structure and expression, intracellular and intercellular transport of markers and physiologically active molecules, studies of fossils, electrophysiological probes, programmed observing and recording individual and social behaviors in wild natural surroundings, and digital capture and dissemination of images and numerical information.
This opportunity for personal interactions among generations of workers, including new students and established authorities, will have lasting benefits for the work of all of them. The impact will be further spread by the publication of the Conference Proceedings in an established archival publication, the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, available in most of the major libraries of the world as well as on the Internet. The Conference Proceedings will be a major reference source for students, scientists, schools, industry, and public knowledge, for information about, and new means of studying, the relationships among the specializations of brains, bodily structures, and behaviors that enable, not only survival in particular environments, but, increasingly, the managing of environments themselves through the behaviors of their animal and human inhabitants.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The subject of the proposed Conference is the evolutionary development of brain mechanisms of behavior;as seen in a rich diversity of specialized capacities that have been developed, in diverse species, for obtaining, organizing and manipulating information about their physical, biological and social environments. Emphasis will be on the utility of new ideas, resources and methods for studying neurobehavioral biology, to advance solutions to novel, as well as perennial, questions about animal and human evolution. Of special importance for our own species and its neurological health, the Conference will promote an enhanced understanding of human elaborations from common ancestral brain structures and functional features -- those that humans share with other mammals and other vertebrates. The participation of the National Museum of Health and Medicine provides an optimal venue for the Conference, along with access to large collections of materials and data of central relevance to the aims of the Conference. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: An initial session will include an overview and round table discussion of current issues in neurobehavioral evolution among vertebrate animals;this will be followed by a session reviewing the availability, around the world, of specimens and databases useful for neurobehavioral evolutionary study. Following this will be a series of specialized sessions presenting recent interdisciplinary studies elucidating neurobehavioral mechanisms using the many new approaches and technologies that have been developed recently. Novel features of the conference will be an emphasis on scheduled multi-interpersonal small group discussions at exhibits in addition to the traditional didactic series of platform oral presentations, as well as workshops where participants can explore specimens and try out techniques shown in the earlier presentations.