Objective & Methodology:
Our aim is the design of a common semantic model providing a unified view on all data and tools to be shared between NeuroLOG partners. For this purpose,we built a multi-layered and multi-components formal ontology. We chose a design framework that structures the ontology at different levels of abstraction while respecting common conceptualization choices. At the highest level is a top-level ontology that includes abstract concepts and relationships valid across domains. We adopted DOLCE (Descriptive Ontology for Linguistic and Cognitive Engineering), as the foundational ontology. We then added Core ontologies, which provide generic, basic and minimal concepts and relations in a specific domain. By minimal we mean that core ontologies should include only the most reusable and widely applicable categories. These kinds of ontologies are essential for sharing intended meaning between different domains. We adopted I& DA (Information and Discourse Acts), a core ontology initially built for classifying documents as a function of their content.We use it to model medical images, which we consider as types of documents. Participant Roles is the core ontology we use to describe the modes of image participation in data processing. I& DA and Participant Roles are built according to DOLCE ontological commitments. On the basis of these two layers, we constructed our Domain ontology dedicated to conceptualizing a specific domain, in this case neuroimaging. Obviously, large domains such as neuroimaging can be divided into sub-domains for the sake of modularization.
More information about our approach can be found in: Temal L., Dojat M. , Kassel G. and Gibaud B. Towards an ontology for sharing medical images and regions of interest in neuroimaging, J. Biomed. Inform. 2008;41:766-78.
Used Ressources:
Sources: OntoNeuroLOG Version 1. sources available for partners :
Sources OntoNeuroLOG Version 2.0 sources available for partners :
Sources Version OntoNeuroLOG Version 2.2 OWL files public access