Abstract

NeuroNLP, is a key application on the Fruit Fly Brain Observatory platform (FFBO, http://fruitflybrain.org), that provides a modern web-based portal for navigating fruit fly brain circuit data. Increases in the availability and scale of fruit fly connectome data, demand new, scalable and accessible methods to facilitate investigation into the functions of the latest complex circuits being uncovered. NeuroNLP enables in-depth exploration and investigation of the structure of brain circuits, using intuitive natural language queries that are capable of revealing the latent structure and information, obscured due to expansive yet independent data sources. NeuroNLP is built on top of a database system call NeuroArch that codifies knowledge about the fruit fly brain circuits, spanning multiple sources. Users can probe biological circuits in the NeuroArch database with plain English queries, such as "show glutamatergic local neurons in the left antennal lobe" and "show neurons with dendrites in the left mushroom body and axons in the fan-shaped body". This simple yet powerful interface replaces the usual, cumbersome checkboxes and dropdown menus prevalent in today's neurobiological databases. Equipped with powerful 3D visualization, NeuroNLP standardizes tools and methods for graphical rendering, representation, and manipulation of brain circuits, while integrating with existing databases such as the FlyCircuit. The user-friendly graphical user interface complements the natural language queries with additional controls for exploring the connectivity of neurons and neural circuits. Designed with an open-source, modular structure, it is highly scalable/flexible/extensible to additional databases or to switch between databases and supports the creation of additional parsers for other languages. By supporting access through a web browser from any modern laptop or smartphone, NeuroNLP significantly increases the accessibility of fruit fly brain data and improves the impact of the data in both scientific and educational exploration.

Details

Title
NeuroNLP: a natural language portal for aggregated fruit fly brain data
Author
Ukani, Nikul H; Tomkins, Adam; Chung-Heng Yeh; Bruning, Wesley; Fenichel, Allison L; Zhou, Yiyin; Yu-Chi, Huang; Florescu, Dorian; Carlos Luna Ortiz; Richmond, Paul; Chung-Chuan Lo; Coca, Daniel; Chiang, Ann-Shyn; Lazar, Aurel A
University/institution
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Section
New Results
Publication year
2016
Publication date
Dec 14, 2016
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
ISSN
2692-8205
Source type
Working Paper
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2070266463
Copyright
�� 2016. This article is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (���the License���). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.