A projection approach of optical topographic maps to the cortical surface of the brain

This research is aimed at integrating two-dimensional (2-D) optical topographic maps to anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for 3-D functional brain mapping. The uniqueness of this approach is in mapping topographic maps to the cortex surface of the brain based on projections of the results obtained from the skull surface. MRI is known to provide information about the anatomical structure of the brain, while optical topography system (OTS) displays the changes in the cerebral blood flow in the form of a topographic image. The experiment is based on a repeated finger-tapping task using seven volunteers at Miami children Hospital. The integration of both modalities reveal excellent prospects in localizing the activation that is seen by (OTS) on the 3D brain models constructed from MRI slices. This task demands the development of a computer program that will first identify the region on the 3-D head model from which the topographic image generated by OTS was taken. Second, the topographic images are registered to the 3-D head model. In order to validate our findings, a comparison is made between the fiducial markers (Vitamin E) placed on the patients head during the MRI test to localize the probes location and an automated computer program that will detect the probes position. Using the brain extraction tool (BET), the warped topographic maps are then projected onto the cortex surface of the extracted brain. The proposed OTS-MRI integration is deemed an important field in the neuroscience, allowing investigation of a wide range of motor, sensory, and cognitive functions, as well as providing key information about anatomical structure of the brain.