Three-dimensional mapping of brainstem functional lesions

Abstract

The human brainstem is a highly complex structure where even small lesions can give rise to a variety of symptoms and outward signs. Localising the area of dysfunction within the brainstem is often a difficult task. To make localisation easier, a neural net system has been developed which uses 72 clinical and neurophysiological data inputs to provide a display (using 5268 voxels) on a three-dimensional model of the human brainstem. The net was trained by means of a back-propagation algorithm, over a pool of 580 example cases. Assessed on 200 test cases, the net correctly localised 83.6% of the target voxels; furthermore the net correctly localised the lesions in 31 out of 37 patients. Because this computer-assisted method provides reliable and quantitative localisation of brainstem areas of dysfunction and can be used as a 3D interactive functional atlas, it is expected to prove useful as a diagnostic tool for assessing focal brainstem lesions.

Somatotopic organization of the corticospinal tract in the human brainstem: A MRI–based mapping analysis

“…This is a voxel‐based three‐dimensional brainstem model15, 18, 22 developed using data from several topometric and stereotactic atlases21, 23, 24 (Fig 2). It is subdivided into 5,268 volume elements (“voxels”) ranging from 2 × 2 × 2mm to 2 × 2 × 4mm.…”

Bilateral brainstem activation by thermal stimulation of the face in healthy volunteers

“…A group analysis would possibly create further insights into brainstem processing according to the progress in cortical neuroscience facilitated by appropriate fMRI techniques in the last decade. Some projects recently addressed that problem [6,14,31,36,40]; however, a gold standard is still missing. The present study demonstrated an algorithm of data processing that enables the projection of brainstem activity onto a standardized 3D space.…”

Medullary infarcts may cause ipsilateral masseter reflex abnormalities

“…Given the anatomical–functional right–left symmetry of the brainstem, all left‐sided lesions were flipped to the right side, normalized, and imported into a three‐dimensional brainstem model1 based on data from topometric and stereotactic atlases 8, 13, 14. This idealized brainstem model was subdivided into 5268 volume elements (“voxels”) ranging from 2 × 2 × 2 mm to 2 × 2 × 4 mm.…”