The collections of mammalian brains at the University of Wisconsin and at Michigan State University, a half million stained serial sections from some 300 specimens selected for research and evolutionary significance, are a major and underutilized resource for neuroscientific research and education. The long-term objective is to employ electronic media to solve the problem of inaccessibility, the major reason for this underutilization. Fast and inexpensive means have been devised for rendering, into digital electronic format, good images of intact brains and of stained sections. The technological innovation that is needed now, and the specific aim of this application, is to organize and test means of packaging, presenting, and distributing images so that they can be widely used for health-related research and educational purposes. A representative sample set of images will be organized on CD-ROM and distributed to a sample population of researchers and educators. Their success in using this sample will be quantitatively and objectively scored, to determine the feasibility of this model for generating a library of complete volumes on CD-ROM, each of which will contain comprehensive accounts of selected groups of brains in the collections.National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
