A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience
- Lund University, Sweden
- University of Würzburg, Germany
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
- University of Marburg, Germany
- Free University, Germany
- UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway
- Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Germany
Abstract
Insect neuroscience generates vast amounts of highly diverse data, of which only a small fraction are findable, accessible and reusable. To promote an open data culture, we have therefore developed the InsectBrainDatabase (IBdb), a free online platform for insect neuroanatomical and functional data. The IBdb facilitates biological insight by enabling effective cross-species comparisons, by linking neural structure with function, and by serving as general information hub for insect neuroscience. The IBdb allow users to not only effectively locate and visualize data, but to make them widely available for easy, automated reuse via an application programming interface. A unique private mode of the database expands the IBdb functionality beyond public data deposition, additionally providing the means for managing, visualizing and sharing of unpublished data. This dual function creates an incentive for data contribution early in data management workflows and eliminates the additional effort normally associated with publicly depositing research data.
Data availability
All data underlying the figures of the paper are freely available in the insect brain database: insectbraindb.orgAccess to the database is free and can be achieved either by browsing insectbraindb.org or by API access. Documentation see https://insectbraindb.org/static/IBdb_Userguide.pdf
Article and author information
Author details
Frederick Zittrell
Funding
H2020 European Research Council (714599)
- Stanley Heinze
Swedish Research Foundation (2014 - 04623)
- Marie Dacke
H2020 European Research Council (817535)
- Marie Dacke
Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-14-1-0242)
- Eric Warrant
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (EL784/1-1)
- Basil el Jundi
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (HO 950/24-1,HO 950/25-1,HO 950/26-1)
- Uwe Homberg
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Me365/34)
- Randolf Menzel
Startup grant from the University of Würzburg
- Keram Pfeiffer
Norwegian Research Council (287052)
- Bente G Berg
Freie Universität Berlin and Zukunftskolleg University Konstanz
- Randolf Menzel
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2021, Heinze et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 1,990
- views
-
- 294
- downloads
-
- 32
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience
eLife 10:e65376.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65376
Further reading
-
- Neuroscience
This study investigates the functional network underlying response inhibition in the human brain, particularly the role of the basal ganglia in successful action cancellation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) approaches have frequently used the stop-signal task to examine this network. We merge five such datasets, using a novel aggregatory method allowing the unification of raw fMRI data across sites. This meta-analysis, along with other recent aggregatory fMRI studies, does not find evidence for the innervation of the hyperdirect or indirect cortico-basal-ganglia pathways in successful response inhibition. What we do find, is large subcortical activity profiles for failed stop trials. We discuss possible explanations for the mismatch of findings between the fMRI results presented here and results from other research modalities that have implicated nodes of the basal ganglia in successful inhibition. We also highlight the substantial effect smoothing can have on the conclusions drawn from task-specific general linear models. First and foremost, this study presents a proof of concept for meta-analytical methods that enable the merging of extensive, unprocessed, or unreduced datasets. It demonstrates the significant potential that open-access data sharing can offer to the research community. With an increasing number of datasets being shared publicly, researchers will have the ability to conduct meta-analyses on more than just summary data.
-
- Neuroscience
Orexin signaling in the ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra promotes locomotion and reward processing, but it is not clear whether dopaminergic neurons directly mediate these effects. We show that dopaminergic neurons in these areas mainly express orexin receptor subtype 1 (Ox1R). In contrast, only a minor population in the medial ventral tegmental area express orexin receptor subtype 2 (Ox2R). To analyze the functional role of Ox1R signaling in dopaminergic neurons, we deleted Ox1R specifically in dopamine transporter-expressing neurons of mice and investigated the functional consequences. Deletion of Ox1R increased locomotor activity and exploration during exposure to novel environments or when intracerebroventricularely injected with orexin A. Spontaneous activity in home cages, anxiety, reward processing, and energy metabolism did not change. Positron emission tomography imaging revealed that Ox1R signaling in dopaminergic neurons affected distinct neural circuits depending on the stimulation mode. In line with an increase of neural activity in the lateral paragigantocellular nucleus (LPGi) of Ox1RΔDAT mice, we found that dopaminergic projections innervate the LPGi in regions where the inhibitory dopamine receptor subtype D2 but not the excitatory D1 subtype resides. These data suggest a crucial regulatory role of Ox1R signaling in dopaminergic neurons in novelty-induced locomotion and exploration.
