A user-friendly python library to create high-quality, 3D neuro-anatomical renderings combining data from publicly available brain atlases with user-generated experimental data.
From: Claudi et al. (2021) Visualizing anatomically registered data with brainrender. eLife
Documentation
brainrender is a project of the BrainGlobe Initiative, which is a collaborative effort to develop a suite of Python-based software tools for computational neuroanatomy. A comprehensive online documentation for brainrender can be found on the BrainGlobe website here.
Furthermore, an open-access journal article describing BrainRender has been published in eLife, available here.
Installation
From PyPI:
Quickstart
import random import numpy as np from brainrender import Scene from brainrender.actors import Points def get_n_random_points_in_region(region, N): """ Gets N random points inside (or on the surface) of a mesh """ region_bounds = region.mesh.bounds() X = np.random.randint(region_bounds[0], region_bounds[1], size=10000) Y = np.random.randint(region_bounds[2], region_bounds[3], size=10000) Z = np.random.randint(region_bounds[4], region_bounds[5], size=10000) pts = [[x, y, z] for x, y, z in zip(X, Y, Z)] ipts = region.mesh.inside_points(pts).coordinates return np.vstack(random.choices(ipts, k=N)) # Display the Allen Brain mouse atlas. scene = Scene(atlas_name="allen_mouse_25um", title="Cells in primary visual cortex") # Display a brain region primary_visual = scene.add_brain_region("VISp", alpha=0.2) # Get a numpy array with (fake) coordinates of some labelled cells coordinates = get_n_random_points_in_region(primary_visual, 2000) # Create a Points actor cells = Points(coordinates) # Add to scene scene.add(cells) # Add label to the brain region scene.add_label(primary_visual, "Primary visual cortex") # Display the figure. scene.render()
Seeking help or contributing
We are always happy to help users of our tools, and welcome any contributions. If you would like to get in contact with us for any reason, please see the contact page of our website.
Citing brainrender
If you use brainrender in your scientific work, please cite:
Claudi, F., Tyson, A. L., Petrucco, L., Margrie, T.W., Portugues, R., Branco, T. (2021) "Visualizing anatomically registered data with Brainrender" <i>eLife</i> 2021;10:e65751 [doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65751](https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65751)
BibTeX:
@article{Claudi2021, author = {Claudi, Federico and Tyson, Adam L. and Petrucco, Luigi and Margrie, Troy W. and Portugues, Ruben and Branco, Tiago}, doi = {10.7554/eLife.65751}, issn = {2050084X}, journal = {eLife}, pages = {1--16}, pmid = {33739286}, title = {{Visualizing anatomically registered data with brainrender}}, volume = {10}, year = {2021} }