Neuroscientists explore large-scale electrophysiology and imaging datasets through Urchin, a free open-source renderer built for interactive visualization. This utilities and design tool pairs with a Python API to control views and overlay brain regions from the Allen CCF mouse atlas or Waxholm rat atlas. Users interact directly with the renderer on PC for hands-on dataset navigation.
The community shapes Urchin's development-report useful features or pain points via GitHub issues to drive updates. Designed for researchers handling complex neuroscience data, it focuses on precise atlas integration and API-driven control. Education in brain mapping benefits from its open, extensible approach.
Urchin (Universal Renderer, Creating Helpful Images for Neuroscience) is a free and open source tool for neuroscientists that supports interactive exploration of large-scale electrophysiology and imaging datasets. Urchin is only the renderer, to control Urchin and display brain regions you need to use the Python API which can be found on our website.
Urchin currently supports the Allen CCF mouse atlas and the Waxholm rat atlas.
As a community-driven project we hope you will report back about what you find useful and frustrating so that we can make changes in the future. Please use the issues page on Github for this purpose.
