Alan Evans: Human Brain Mapping, AI, and the Promise of Big Data

Professor Alan Evans at McGill University in Montreal is a leader in the global effort to use computing power and artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret the massive amounts of brain structural and functional imaging, clinical, behavioral, and molecular data amassed by neuroscientists, radiologists, and neurologists. The creation of international consortia, procedures for data registration, quality control methods, and analysis algorithms have enabled large open science databases that are being mined by scientists throughout the world. These efforts have resulted an explosion of new knowledge of the human brain – its development and function throughout life, as well as what goes wrong in various disorders. In this episode Professor Evans talks about some of the major big data projects and how they are facilitating new discoveries about the human brain. 

LINKS: 

McGill Centre for Integrative Neuroscience; LORIS, CBrain, imaging software:

https://mcin.ca/technology/visualization/atelier3d/

Cyber infrastructure at the Montreal Neurological Institute:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5216036/pdf/fninf-10-00053.pdf

BigBrain: https://bigbrainproject.org/

BigBrain 3D Atlas article: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7159250/pdf/pbio.3000678.pdf

Canadian Open Science Platform: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10374086/pdf/pcbi.1011230.pdf

Brain network architecture in autism: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10005951/