Developing a multiscale neural connectivity knowledgebase of the autonomic nervous system

The Stimulating Peripheral Activity to Relieve Conditions (SPARC) program is a U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded effort to enhance our understanding of the neural circuitry responsible for visceral control. SPARC's mission is to identify, extract, and compile our overall existing knowledge and understanding of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) connectivity between the central nervous system and end organs. A major goal of SPARC is to use this knowledge to promote the development of the next generation of neuromodulation devices and bioelectronic medicine for nervous system diseases. As part of the SPARC program, we have been developing the SPARC Connectivity Knowledge Base of the Autonomic Nervous System (SCKAN), a dynamic resource containing information about the origins, terminations, and routing of ANS projections. The distillation of SPARC's connectivity knowledge into this knowledge base involves a rigorous curation process to capture connectivity information provided by experts, published literature, textbooks, and SPARC scientific data. SCKAN is used to automatically generate anatomical and functional connectivity maps on the SPARC portal. In this article, we present the design and functionality of SCKAN, including the detailed knowledge engineering process developed to populate the resource with high quality and accurate data. We discuss the process from both the perspective of SCKAN's ontological representation as well as its practical applications in developing information systems. We share our techniques, strategies, tools and insights for developing a practical knowledgebase of ANS connectivity that supports continual enhancement.