
			      Xanat 2.0
		   A Graphical Anatomical Database

		  By Bill Press and Bruno Olshausen
	       Washington University School of Medicine
		Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology
		      St. Louis, Missouri 63110


XANAT is a computer program that facilitates the analysis of
neuroanatomical data by storing the results of numerous studies in a
standardized format, and by providing various tools for performing
summaries and comparisons of these studies.  Data are entered by
drawing injection and label sites directly onto canonical
representations of the neuroanatomical structures of interest, along
with providing descriptive text information. Searches may then be
performed on the data by querying the database graphically according
to injection or label site, or via text information (i.e., keyword
search).  Analyses may also be performed by accumulating data across
multiple studies and displaying a color coded map that graphically
represents the total evidence for connectivity between regions.  Thus,
data may be studied and compared free of areal boundaries (which often
vary from one lab to the next), and instead with respect to standard
landmarks, such as the position relative to well known neuroanatomical
substrates, or stereotaxic coordinates.  If desired, areal boundaries
may be defined by the user to facilitate the interpretation of
results.

XANAT is provided free of charge, and may obtained via anonymous FTP
from v1.wustl.edu (128.252.204.4), in the pub/xanat directory.
Included with the distribution is an example dataset of
pulvinar-cortical connectivity, which should prove useful in learning
how to use the program.

XANAT is written in C and is intended to run on unix workstations
running the X11 window system.  The workstation must have at least a
modifiable 8-bit color map.  The program has been successfully tested
on Suns, SGIs, and IBM PCs (running Linux).
