Dynamic Tractography

CWRU MCINTYRE LAB + IC, 2019/2020

BUILDING A BRAIN WITH HOLOGRAMS

Even after hundreds of years of study, there are parts of the human brain where we struggle to understand even the most basic connections between regions.

This is particularly true in the areas of the brain that are the target for some of the most promising therapies, like deep brain stimulation (DBS). Independent researchers around the globe have spent their entire careers just to define one of these complex 3-D connection pathways, but a global view of how all of these structures relate to each other has been missing.

Recognizing this significant need, CWRU Professor Cameron McIntyre has been working with the IC and expert neuroanatomists to use a custom HoloLens framework built by the IC to establish an atlas of the connections in the critically important area around the subthalamic nucleus, the site of many treatments for Parkinson’s Disease.

This project, which has been funded through a $2.5M NIH grant, has already resulted in new insights about brain structure that have been published in the high impact journal Neuron.

Related news articles:

• “Cameron McIntyre: Improving Deep Brain Stimulation Through Entrepreneurship” – Duke University, 08.21.2020
• “Tools for Deep Brain Stimulation” – Cleveland FES Center
• “Gaining Insight into Parkinson’s” – US Dept of Veterans Affairs, 08.28.2019
• “Building the First Holographic Brain ‘Atlas'” – The Daily, 11.07.2019
• “First interactive holographic ‘brain map,’ created by CWRU researchers, could make surgery more precise” – Cleveland.com, 11.07.2019
• “Augmented Reality Platform for Deep Brain Stimulation” – Grantome, 04.04.2018
• “Biomedical engineering’s Cameron McIntyre discusses recent insights on the causes of neuropsychiatric conditions” – The Daily, 03.25.2014