This program will combine multi-level research on mechanisms of neura2Databasel plasticity in basal ganglia, hippocampus, and cerebellum with the development of new informatics tools which will be: (a) tested by their ability to stimulate, integrate, and disseminate this neuroscience research at USC; and then (b) developed into user-friendly versions of these new database, visualization, and simulation tools. These tools will be released to the broad neuroscience community, and will integrate and catalyze the development of basic research in neuroscience. The informatics work will build on four existing projects at USC: (i) research on the construction of object-oriented databases, together with database communication/integration mechanisms and discovery tools; (ii) vector-based modeling of anatomical structures in the rat brain; (iii) pixel- based functional imaging of the human brain; and (iv) the USC internationally- used Neural Simulation Language, NSL, which provides an object-oriented methodology for neural simulation. The program will develop an integrated, easy to use, environment in which neuroscientists can store, visualize, retrieve and model complex data sets at all levels of detail. Research and development of this new informatics methodology will proceed in tandem with both contributing to, and being tested by, the gathering of new experimental data (neurochemical, neurophysiological, and neuroanatomical) and the construction of computer models, for mechanisms of neural plasticity in learning (studied in hippocampus and cerebellum) and in compensation for disease (studied in basal ganglia), paying special attention to the integration of analyses of circuit properties and synaptic mechanisms. Three integrated, commonly housed Cores - Data Base Services, Visualization, and Simulation Tools - will provide technology transfer for tools developed in the informatics research. This research, in turn, will be strongly influenced by feedback obtained as the Core Services are used in basic research on neural plasticity. The program will first integrate research at seven different laboratories for neuroscience experimentation in three different buildings on USC's two campuses; this will provide the basis for scaling up to a database/visualization/simulation environment that will meet the central aims of the Human Brain Project. The result will be two-fold: continuing progress in a multi-level neuroscience research program on learning and compensation for disease to yield a set of exemplary databases as a nucleus for broad-scale database construction; and computer science research which will yield new user-friendly database/visualization/simulation tools for dissemination to neuroscience laboratories worldwide.
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