1st INCF Workshop on Neuroanatomical Nomenclature and Taxonomy

Because neuroanatomy is a foundational aspect of neuroscience, workshop participants enthusiastically supported the creation of a standing International Coordinating Committee for Neuroanatomical Nomenclature (ICCNN). The mission of its respected experts would be to develop a widely accepted and freely accessible terminology for describing accurately the nervous system’s structural organization at both the regional and cellular levels, based ultimately on an evolutionary/comparative approach. The final product should be implemented in a stepwise fashion and include a set of clearly defined terms and relationships between them that: is documented with scientific evidence and explanations supports alternate interpretations and terms provides updating and versioning in perpetuity. The ICCNN should coordinate its work with atlas and web portal development, and with communities that are working independently on more restricted structural neuroscience problems, for example in insects or birds, or in particular regions like cerebral cortex within or across species. Finally, history suggests that for the resulting neuroanatomical terminology (ontology) to have lasting value, the ICCNN should articulate general principles underlying the schema used in its construction. Initially the ICCNN should survey existing resources and develop a prototype nomenclature on a tractable problem of wide basic and clinical interest like the vertebrate striatum.