A new library of tools called "Thunder" could help researchers analyze big data.
New technologies can monitor brain activity, but generate an enormous amount of information. This data could help researchers gain new insights into the brain, but only if they are able to interpret it, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) reported. The findings were reported in the journal Nature Methods.
Thunder has the ability to speed up the analysis of data sets that are so large they would normally take up to weeks to analyze. A research team used the program find patterns in high-resolution images collected form the brains of zebrafish and mice. The data was from a new microscope that was developed the monitor nearly every brain cell as they respond to visual stimuli. The immense volume of information would take hours to analyze at a single workstation.
"For a lot of these data sets, a single machine is just not going to cut it," group co-leader Jeremy Freeman said.
The complexity of the data also exceeds the ability of a single computer to interpret it.
"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," co-leader Misha Ahrens said. Thanks to thunder the team was able to analyze the data in a matter of minutes.
Combining the new imaging techniques and Thunder allowed the researchers to monitor brain activity as the fish received sensory information. The new tools quickly revealed patterns in the data; the researchers identified cells that were associated with movement in particular directions as well as those who fired when the animal was at rest.
