Neuroinformatics: Ontologies

This lecture introduces the concept of ontologies as formal representations of knowledge about specific entities or concepts, focusing on their importance in neuroscience. It covers the role of ontologies in organizing data, defining properties of entities, and establishing relationships between them. Specific examples from the Blue Brain Project are discussed, including the Allen Institute's brain region definitions in mice, Markram's dataset on Rat S1 Hindlimb Cortex, and Blue Brain's ontologies for electrical and synapse types. The lecture also explores the classification of cortical interneuron types and the morpho-electric cell type ontology, providing insights into the complex structure of the brain at a cellular level.