Dutch researchers create 3D maps of brain's nerve bundles

3D brain MRI mapping software shows nerve bundles.  Image source: Eindhoven University of Technology

Researchers from the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have developed 3D software that converts MRI datasets into 3D images that map the brain’s wires.

The new tool leverages High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI), a new MRI measurement technology. Anna Vilanova, PhD, along with PhD candidates Vesna Preskovska, Tim Peters and Paulo Rodrigues, constructed the processing, interpretation and interactive visualization software to convert MRI datasets into images that allow physicians to observe and identify nerve bundles in the brain.

The maps created by the software provide surgeons with a complete, non-invasively acquired image set of the brain wires.

The potential clinical applications of the technology include Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders as well as psychiatric disorders. It also may help surgeons avoid critical nerve bundles during brain surgery.

For example, deep brain simulation of patients with Parkinson’s disease suppresses vibration seizures. “With this new tool, you can determine exactly where to place the stimulation electrode in the brain. The guiding map has been improved: because we now see the roads on the map, we know better where to stick the needle,” wrote Bart ter Haar Romeny, PhD, a professor of biomedical image analysis at Eindhoven University.

Romeny predicts that the software could be available for clinical use within a few years. “We need to validate the package,” he wrote.