A Computational Comparison of Nissl Brain Atlases Across Mammalia.

Brain atlases have been created across a wide variety of mammalian species, but a majority only represent a small percentage of the total brain volume. Resources available for the bovine brain are an unlabeled, nissl stained, minimally sliced Bos indicus brain, a hand-drawn labeled atlas of a dozen sections, and a few labeled calf Bos taurus brain MRI images. The availability of brain atlases on most species is similarly sparse and incomplete. To aid in the bridging this gap, we have sectioned, stained with nissl and Weil, and labeled every 55 micrometers of a Bos taurus brain. This bovine brain atlas will be compared to atlases of humans, companion animals, livestock animals, and wild animals. A volumetric comparison using a one-way ANOVA will determine the mean differences between the number of slides and the detail of the slides in both quality and labeling between species. We hypothesize there will be significantly more information available for human, sheep, and rodent brains, with little to none for most other species. A major limitation to studying the differing morphology of brain regions within many species and tissue size evolution across species is a lack of detailed brain atlases. This study highlights which species are lacking brain information and the importance of improving brain imaging and labeling for other species in future research