Brain activity data is recorded at a tremendous rate in the modern age, providing an amount of data never before seen in neuroscience. New information about the structure and activity of brains, both human and non-human, is flooding researchers. Just a simple brain scan of a single fish can create terabytes of information. Until now, investigators were without any tool for quickly analyzing this wealth of data.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers believe the field of neuroscience could gain new wealths of information from this data. In order for that to happen, they will first need to know how to interpret that information.
"Thunder," a library of tools developed by researchers at HHMI, is now able to analyze vast quantities of the neural data. To accomplish this task, the new system takes advantage of the massive computer power of distributed computing. Single computers take long periods of time to analyze the vast quantities of data produced by neurological studies.
"When you record information from the brain, you don't know the best way to get the information that you need out of it. Every data set is different. You have ideas, but whether or not they generate insights is an open question until you actually apply them. Being able to apply these analyses quickly - one after the other - is important. Speed gives a researcher more flexibility to explore and get new ideas," Misha Ahrens, one of the developers of Thunder, said.
Janelia, a farm research campus operated by HHMI was home to development of Thunder.
Developers of the software have used the new system to analyze highly-detailed images taken of the brains of both zebrafish and mice. The raw images were collected using a wide range of techniques, and the data was merged using Thunder.
The new application is designed to be easy to use, as well as simple for researchers to adapt to their own particular needs. Thunder is based on the Spark cluster computing framework, a project developed at the University of California Berkeley, and currentky managed by Apache.
A newly-designed microscope is able to monitor the activity of each cell in the brain of fish, as the animal processes visual information.
Using Thunder, researchers are able to process neural data much faster than ever before possible. Investigations that once took weeks can be completed in a matter of minutes. The application can run either independently, or through Amazon's cloud computing service.
Thunder is open-source software, available for free download on the Freeman Lab Web site.
Development of the Thunder aalytical system and early tests into its effectiveness is detailed in the journal Nature Methods.
