Virtual Brain Banks Are Evolving Into Rich, Accessible Digital Brain Libraries
Brains banks have been in existence for several decades, but it is only recently that digital technology will make digital brain and clinical tissue available worldwide.
Digital libraries are not new, and anyone who wishes to explore libraries or museums on the Internet has a treasure trove available to them. Digital media has become the way for anyone to access information that previously had been difficult to view and impossible to visit.
Now, according to a recent article in a medical journal, the digital library for the brain and related neurologic materials may be in the offing. Where once brain banks, seen as vital for neurologists, were the only means of physical exploration, new ways to access brains for research on diseases will be available to scientists all over the world. The collections were previously only available at elite institutions that provided access to maintained brain banks.
In the 1960s, the first modern brain banks actively collecting and strategically preserving both diseased and healthy brains to be consequently distributed to the scientific community were instituted. In an era where state-of-the-art biochemical “Omic”…
