Neuroinformatics Database (NiDB) – A Modular, Portable Database for the Storage, Analysis, and Sharing of Neuroimaging Data

• Published in: Neuroinformatics (Totowa, N.J.) Vol. 11; no. 4; pp. 495 - 505
• Main Authors: Book, Gregory A., Anderson, Beth M., Stevens, Michael C., Glahn, David C., Assaf, Michal, Pearlson, Godfrey D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.10.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Bioinformatics; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Brain - physiology; Computational Biology/Bioinformatics; Computer Appl. in Life Sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Computer systems and distributed systems. User interface; Connectionism. Neural networks; Database Management Systems; Exact sciences and technology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Information Dissemination; Information Storage and Retrieval; Investigative techniques, diagnostic techniques (general aspects); Medical sciences; Memory and file management (including protection and security); Memory organisation. Data processing; Nervous system; Neuroimaging; Neurology; Neurosciences; Original Article; Radiodiagnosis. Nmr imagery. Nmr spectrometry; Software; Neuroimaging; Database; Neuroinformatics; Pipeline; Input output; Peer to peer; Very large databases; Modeling; Open source software; Encephalon; Imaging; Data description; Storage structure; Bioinformatics; High performance; Computer vision; Neural network; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Technical information; Image analysis; Storage; Open systems; Medical imagery; Shared memory; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 1539-2791; 1559-0089; 1559-0089
• DOI: 10.1007/s12021-013-9194-1

We present a modular, high performance, open-source database system that incorporates popular neuroimaging database features with novel peer-to-peer sharing, and a simple installation. An increasing number of imaging centers have created a massive amount of neuroimaging data since fMRI became popular more than 20 years ago, with much of that data unshared. The Neuroinformatics Database (NiDB) provides a stable platform to store and manipulate neuroimaging data and addresses several of the impediments to data sharing presented by the INCF Task Force on Neuroimaging Datasharing, including 1) motivation to share data, 2) technical issues, and 3) standards development. NiDB solves these problems by 1) minimizing PHI use, providing a cost effective simple locally stored platform, 2) storing and associating all data (including genome) with a subject and creating a peer-to-peer sharing model, and 3) defining a sample, normalized definition of a data storage structure that is used in NiDB. NiDB not only simplifies the local storage and analysis of neuroimaging data, but also enables simple sharing of raw data and analysis methods, which may encourage further sharing.