Author(s)

A. Doi, H. Fujimura, M. Nagano, T. Inoue & A. Ogawa

Abstract

Visualization of a brain neural pathway is considered as a useful tool for the support of surgery planning. In this paper, we propose a method of visualization of the brain neural pathway by using both critical points and target regions, in order to extract a necessary pathway. Here, a critical point is a vortex center, and we suppose that a neural pathway is a vortical flow field, and we find starting points of streamlines by classifying critical points in the flow field. The user specifies the target regions, such as ROI (Region Of Interest), and visualizes important streamlines that pass through the target regions. Keywords: visualization, brain neural pathway, DT-MRI, critical points, target regions 1 Introduction Brain neural pathway visualization using diffusion tensor-magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) is used in the early detection of illnesses, and in the support of both surgery and post-surgical planning. DT-MRI produces multiple 3- dimensional images by applying magnetic fields from multiple directions (6 directions in this research). Pathways such as brain white matter control the movement of water molecules, and signal strength changes according to relationships between magnetic field gradient in the diffusion direction and direction of the pathway. Water molecule diffusion perpendicular to the direction of the white matter pathway is low in comparison to diffusion in a parallel direction [1,2].

Keywords

visualization, brain neural pathway, DT-MRI, critical points, target regions