Neuroscience data bases

The creation of databases for the field of neuroscience research is both a necessary and formidable challenge. It is desirable and necessary to be able to understand and integrate the vast amount of experimentally derived data collected around the globe. This data is growing exponentially, as well as increasing in complexity and sophistication due to the capabilities of the newest technologies that are being applied. We are now beginning to understand the structural, functional and developmental aspects of the nervous system at finer and finer levels of granularity. Creating databases is a formidable challenge because the data are diverse being derived from chemical, biophysical, structural, morphological, physiological or behavioural sources, with each domain having its own characteristic parameters. The article reviews the important developments that have led to this new field of neuroinformatics and the efforts that are underway in the USA and around the world to make this a true international research effort.