Personalized 3D Brain Maps to Guide Neurosurgeries

    Neurosurgeries are often performed with the aid of 3D maps of patients’ brains. But such maps typically show anatomical landmarks and don’t indicate where critical brain functions such as language and motor function are found. A $3.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health will fund a collaboration between researchers at Washington University School of Medicine and Medtronic, the maker of a neurosurgery navigational system. Together, they will create a software program that builds personalized 3D maps of the location of brain functions, integrating that information into a navigational system. The new maps would allow physicians to plan and perform surgeries more accurately and safely.