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NOWinBRAIN: a Large, Systematic, and Extendable Repository of 3D Reconstructed Images of a Living Human Brain Cum Head and Neck

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Abstract

Despite the tremendous development of various brain-related resources, a large, systematic, comprehensive, extendable, and beautiful repository of 3D reconstructed images of a living human brain expanded to the head and neck is not yet available. I have created such a novel repository and populated it with images derived from a 3D atlas constructed from 3/7 Tesla MRI and high-resolution CT scans. This web-based repository contains 6 galleries hierarchically organized in 444 albums and sub-albums with 5,156 images. Its original features include a systematic design in terms of multiple standard views, modes of presentation, and spatially co-registered image sequences; multi-tissue class galleries constructed from 26 primary tissue classes and 199 sub-classes; and a unique image naming syntax enabling image searching based solely on the image name. Anatomic structures are displayed in 6 standard views (anterior, left, posterior, right, superior, inferior), all views having the same brain size, and optionally with additional arbitrary views. In each view, the images are shown as sequences in three standard modes of presentation, non-parcellated unlabeled, parcellated unlabeled, and parcellated labeled. There are two types of spatially co-registered image sequences (imitating image layers and enabling animation creation), the appearance image sequence (for standard views) and the context image sequence (with a growing number of tissue classes). Color-coded neuroanatomic content makes the brain beautiful and facilitates its learning and understanding. This unique repository is freely available and easily accessible online at www.nowinbrain.org for a wide spectrum of users in medicine and beyond. Its future extensions are in progress.

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Code Availability

The complete NOWinBRAIN repository with all 5,156 images along with additional materials is available publically online at www.nowinbrain.org.

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Acknowledgements

Many clinicians and institutions, through their collaboration as well as encouragement and endorsement of my long-term brain atlas-related work, motivated me to embark on this endeavor, including (but not limited to) Profs. Alim-Louis Benabid, R. Nick Bryan, David L. Cordozo, Michael V. Knopp, William W. Orrison, Anne G. Osborn, Albert L. Rhoton, Val M. Runge, Jean Talairach, Pierre Tournoux, and M. G. Yasargil; and the American Society of Neuroradiology, Radiological Society of North America, British Medical Association, Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics, and European Patent Office, as well as the publisher of my 15 brain atlases Thieme New York–Stuttgart and, especially, its former president Brian Scanlan.

I believe that the best way of expressing my deepest gratitude to each one of them has been to create this freely available and easily accessible resource that will be beneficial to the future generations of medical students, neuroeducators, clinicians, and neuroscientists, especially, in the less fortunate countries.

And last but not least, this work would not be possible without the invaluable contribution of my family, Anna and Natalia to atlas coloring and esthetic design, and Marta to repository development.

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  1. Nowinski Brain Foundation, Warsaw West County, P.O. Box 56, 05-092, Lomianki, Poland

    Wieslaw L. Nowinski

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This is my labor of love and a free contribution to society (as explained in the “Acknowledgements”).

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Correspondence to Wieslaw L. Nowinski.

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Nowinski, W.L. NOWinBRAIN: a Large, Systematic, and Extendable Repository of 3D Reconstructed Images of a Living Human Brain Cum Head and Neck. J Digit Imaging 35, 98–114 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-021-00528-0

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