# Is there a way to check which brains have been annotated using the API?

**URL:** <https://community.brain-map.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-which-brains-have-been-annotated-using-the-api/2424>\
**Category:** General\
**Tags:** allensdk, api\
**Created:** [June 23, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://community.brain-map.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-which-brains-have-been-annotated-using-the-api/2424 "2023-06-23T13:47:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![moldenha](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/community.brain-map.org/moldenha/32/822_2.png) [@moldenha](https://community.brain-map.org/u/moldenha)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://community.brain-map.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-which-brains-have-been-annotated-using-the-api/2424/1 "2023-06-23T13:47:58Z")

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I am trying to do a study about variability in mice brains, and was wondering if there was a way to check which brains have been annotated. The only one that I have seen that has been coronally sectioned and annotated was P56. When I would try using the download SVG option of the API for any brains found on the experimental section when I looked for coronally sliced brains that included certain regions, I would only get a blank image back. Is there any database for coronally sectioned mice brains that have also been annotated? Or is P56 the only one like that?

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**Author:** ![ray.sanchez](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex027/user_avatar/community.brain-map.org/ray.sanchez/32/679_2.png) [@ray.sanchez](https://community.brain-map.org/u/ray.sanchez)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2023, 5:15pm UTC](https://community.brain-map.org/t/is-there-a-way-to-check-which-brains-have-been-annotated-using-the-api/2424/2 "2023-06-23T17:15:25Z")

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Thanks for your question! See the response below from one of our investigators, Lydia Ng:

> The only mouse brains we have SVGs are reference atlases.
> 
> If you want to access other reference atlases I would start here:
> 
> [Atlas Drawings and Ontologies - Allen Brain Atlas API (brain-map.org)](http://help.brain-map.org/display/api/Atlas+Drawings+and+Ontologies)
> 
> Otherwise, we don’t annotate experiment data.
> 
> If you are doing a variability study you might be interested in “CCF Applications and Resources” part of this paper [Redirecting](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.007)
> 
> and associated github repos
> 
> [GitHub - AllenInstitute/CCFv3\_Volumetric\_Analysis: Scripts for measuring surface area and volumes of structures in both the reference and original spaces.](https://github.com/AllenInstitute/CCFv3_Volumetric_Analysis/)
> 
> [GitHub - AllenInstitute/3D-atlas-reverse-mapping: This repository contains a Jupyter Notebook that demonstrates the reverse mapping of the 3D atlas onto an imaged section.](https://github.com/AllenInstitute/3D-atlas-reverse-mapping/)  
> Also this [AllenInstitute/CCF\_Tutorial (github.com)](https://github.com/AllenInstitute/CCF_Tutorial)