A database for neural experiments data obtained with electrophysiology

Abstract

Neuroscience is a field facing new challenges and progress, mostly due to the new automation technologies available nowadays. It is possible to investigate not only cognition processes but also function and neuronal structures. The electrophysiology technique enables the acquisition of action potentials of single neurons and/ or small clusters of neurons. Usually, the electrophysiological data is not stored avoiding data corruption nor enabling unified access. In addition, data storage usually requires many gigabytes, together with the requirement of documentation of the many possible experimental protocols. The representation of the experiment, its documentation, and data retrieval, are critical to performing the first analysis, and also for a reanalysis, especially when considering the ethical aspects concerning data acquisition and the high cost of its obtainment. This project focus on the implementation of a database for storage of the action potentials data acquired with the electrophysiology technique for cognition studies, aiming for local organization and efficient recovery of the raw data using the entity-relationship model. The database will be developed in a modular way using SQL language together with the software DBDesigner® and Postgres®. The interface will possibly be implemented with Java.(AU)