Brain Map Identifies Safe Regions, Could Predict Trauma Recovery

R&D DIGEST

An optical imaging system that creates orientation maps of the brain could assist doctors during surgery as well as help them assess the brain's capacity to recover from trauma.

The technology, which comprises a charge-coupled device and three computers, measures brain activity and generates the orientation maps. The camera takes pictures of the cortex and sends them to a computer. One computer acquires the photo frames, another generates stimulation, and the third conducts analysis.

Two possible uses of the application are being explored. First, a research project spearheaded by Valery Kalatsky, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Houston, is using the technology to examine the adjustability of an adult brain, also known as brain plasticity. The second application harnesses the system to create maps during surgery.

The findings from the research on brain plasticity could help doctors determine how a patient will recover from brain trauma. Understanding the brain's plasticity could also result in new treatments that help repair damage.

In its current form, the device first takes a reading of the visual cortex. Once this section of the brain is stimulated, the affected areas reorganize themselves. The imaging device records changes in and around those areas. It generates orientation maps of the brain about 30 times faster than conventional techniques, creating maps every few minutes during the reorganization process.

The Human Frontiers Science Program is providing a three-year, $750,000 grant to support the work.

The imaging system could also be used to create functional maps during brain surgery. Under special circumstances, the maps could help a doctor locate a tumor, for example, and distinguish the safe areas of operation from the dangerous regions.

“In some cases, such as brain tumor and epilepsy surgeries, it could be used to delineate the borders of the tumor or to localize the epileptic loci,” says Kalatsky. Although he is currently using the imaging system for research in his lab, he acknowledges that the technology could be packaged as an entire product for surgeons. “The surgeons must do a craniotomy anyway. This method can help them identify functional areas.”

Such areas include those responsible for speech, comprehension, vision, and motor skills. Kalatsky says it's critical to find the specific areas that should not be damaged. “If the surgeon removes part of the cortex that is responsible for speech production, then the patient would no longer [be able to] speak,” says Kalatsky.

At this point, Kalatsky doesn't see any major changes that need to be made to the technology. The team's next step is to transfer the system into intraoperative human imaging.

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