title: Dynamic Data Visualization with Weave and Brain Choropleths.
abstract: This article introduces the neuroimaging community to the dynamic visualization workbench, Weave (https://www.oicweave.org/), and a set of enhancements to allow the visualization of brain maps. The enhancements comprise a set of brain choropleths and the ability to display these as stacked slices, accessible with a slider. For the first time, this allows the neuroimaging community to take advantage of the advanced tools already available for exploring geographic data. Our brain choropleths are modeled after widely used geographic maps but this mashup of brain choropleths with extant visualization software fills an important neuroinformatic niche. To date, most neuroinformatic tools have provided online databases and atlases of the brain, but not good ways to display the related data (e.g., behavioral, genetic, medical, etc). The extension of the choropleth to brain maps allows us to leverage general-purpose visualization tools for concurrent exploration of brain images and related data. Related data can be represented as a variety of tables, charts and graphs that are dynamically linked to each other and to the brain choropleths. We demonstrate that the simplified region-based analyses that underlay choropleths can provide insights into neuroimaging data comparable to those achieved by using more conventional methods. In addition, the interactive interface facilitates additional insights by allowing the user to filter, compare, and drill down into the visual representations of the data. This enhanced data visualization capability is useful during the initial phases of data analysis and the resulting visualizations provide a compelling way to publish data as an online supplement to journal articles.
authors.affiliation: The University of Arizona, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department, Tucson, AZ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Dianne
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.affiliation: The University of Arizona, School of Information: Science, Technology, and Arts, Tucson, AZ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hicks
authors.affiliation: The University of Massachusetts Lowell, Computer Science Department, Lowell, MA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dufilie
authors.affiliation: The University of Massachusetts Lowell, Computer Science Department, Lowell, MA, United States of America.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grinstein
authors.affiliation: The University of Arizona, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department, Tucson, AZ, United States of America.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Plante
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D003196:Computer Graphics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software