Collations of Connectivity Data on the Macaque Brain (CoCoMac)

Synonyms

Compilation of published tracer injection studies in the Macaque brain; Macaque axonal projection matrix; Macaque brain wiring diagram

Definition

Collations of Connectivity Data on the Macaque Brain (CoCoMac) is a database that contains the results of hundreds of publications in which tracer substances are injected into macaque brains to reveal the afferent and efferent projections of neurons in the injection zones. The goal is to get complete coverage of the brain, so that a full axonal projection matrix can be extracted from the database.

The injected tracer substances diffuse from the extracellular space into the neurons and are then driven by active transport mechanisms toward the axon terminals (anterograde tracer) or toward the soma (retrograde tracer). For each tracer injection, the core information to record is (i) the location of the injection zone, (ii) whether the tracer is anterograde or retrograde, (iii) which locations in the brain are labeled by the tracer after...