Welcome to BAMS - an online resource for information about neural circuitry.

This rapidly expanding set of inference engines currently has 5 interrelated modules: Brain Parts (gray matter regions, white matter tracts, and ventricles), Cell Types, Molecules, Connections (between regions and cell types), and Relations (between parts identified different neuroanatomical atlases).

To start searching BAMS click on the "Search" tab above. Then search BAMS's nervous system parts that includes a complex search form allowing you to look up names, abbreviations and descriptions of gray matter regions, white matter tracts, and ventricles.

More information about BAMS is provided in the About section. For an historical perspective on BAMS, please see Bota, Dong & Swanson (2003) From gene networks to brain networks, Nature Neuroscience 6:795-799.

Reading the online manual is strongly recommended. It explains in detail each function of BAMS, and includes examples of queries. Please note: the newest versions of internet browsers tend to open the manual in a new tab, instead of a window. They also will block it, if the security is set on "high". Please allow temporary popups, or hit the "Ctrl" button when you click on the manual link.

We also recommend reading the newly implemented BAMS Principles and Policies (version 1.0), which explicitly state our fundamental principles and approaches.

At present the BAMS database is sparsely populated. We invite and encourage neuroscientists to help populate BAMS with connectivity and cell type data. This is the only way such an ambitious undertaking can move toward being comprehensive. If you would like to become a BAMS collator just send a message to the system administrator.

BAMS contains more than 30 neuroanatomical nomenclatures for the rat, human, macaque, cat, and mouse (more than 10,000 names). The system contains to date on the order of 45,000 reports of connections between different gray matter regions in the rat and macaque, as collated from the literature.