View the Brain like Never Before

For neuroscientists, understanding the brain is a life’s work. They are pioneers, uncovering the secrets of how the nervous system develops, matures and maintains itself, and finding new ways to prevent and cure devastating neurological and psychiatric disorders.

For them, accurately locating and navigating brain structures can mean the difference between success and failure. Elsevier’s printed brain atlases have been the standard guides for decades. Elsevier’s vision to provide neuroscientists with the best tools to navigate the brain is realized in BrainNavigator, a new product developed in a unique collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science to go beyond the limitations of the print atlases and provide significant additional resources on-line. This relationship allows us to offer a mixture of free and subscription-based content to advance neuroscience.

BrainNavigator acts like a GPS for the brain. It helps neuroscientists identify, mark and visualize areas of the brain while exploring it in 3D. This online, interactive tool combines content from Elsevier’s brain atlases and the cutting-edge 3D technology of the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Neuroscientists who have depended on printed atlases to guide them through the more than 700 structures in the brain can now manipulate atlas data, calibrate the atlas, create virtual sections from the 3D model, annotate them and share their findings online for a deeper understanding of the brain and disorders like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, brain injuries, strokes and addictions.

Updates are available online immediately and include direct links to the most current research from Elsevier’s ScienceDirect database. www.brainnav.com

Speed and accuracy

"I love the speed and accuracy with which I can find a specific brain structure,” says Claudia Farb of the Center for Neural Science at New York University. “By simply typing the name of the structure, the program directs to me to it and highlights it so I can rapidly and easily find the structure. This feature is very convenient for research and absolutely wonderful for teaching because it reduces student frustration when trying to identify specific brain structures, fosters student autonomy and reduces the need for instructor assistance in the classroom and lab.’’