The Brainstem Imaging Laboratory

The Brainstem Imaging Laboratory By the use of high and ultra high field mri scanners, our goal is to identify in living humans the location of brainstem nuclei, their connectivity pathways with the rest of the brain, as well as the brainstem mechanisms that regulate these vital functions in health and disease. Postmortem high resolution mri circumvents the challenges associated with both modalities. a single human brainstem specimen extending from the rostral diencephalon through the caudal medulla was prepared for imaging after the brain was removed from a 65 year old male within 24 h of death.

The Brainstem Imaging Laboratory We review normal brainstem anatomy visualized on widely available clinical 3 t mri scanners using fast gray matter acquisition t1 inversion recovery, probabilistic diffusion tractography, neuromelanin, and susceptibility weighted imaging. Key points • the in vivo brainstem anatomy was explored with ultrahigh field mri (7 t). • in vivo t2* weighted magnitude, χ, and frequency images revealed many brainstem structures. The brainstem navigator toolkit is a collection of in vivo brainstem nuclei atlas labels, mri templates and documentation. the atlas is in stereotactic space and includes gray matter brainstem regions involved in arousal sleep, autonomic, motor, sensory and limbic function. Using a high resolution mri postmortem dataset of the human brainstem and the 3d slicer platform set of tools for image analysis, we were able to identify and delineate a large number of nuclear masses, the largest so far to our knowledge.

The Brainstem Imaging Laboratory The brainstem navigator toolkit is a collection of in vivo brainstem nuclei atlas labels, mri templates and documentation. the atlas is in stereotactic space and includes gray matter brainstem regions involved in arousal sleep, autonomic, motor, sensory and limbic function. Using a high resolution mri postmortem dataset of the human brainstem and the 3d slicer platform set of tools for image analysis, we were able to identify and delineate a large number of nuclear masses, the largest so far to our knowledge. Conventional atlases of the human brainstem are limited by the inflexible, sparsely sampled, two dimensional nature of histology, or the low spatial resolution of conventional magnetic resonance imaging (mri). postmortem high resolution mri circumvents the challenges associated with both modalities. The brainstem imaging lab aims to develop in living humans a neuroimaging based atlas and connectivity diagram of brainstem nuclei by the use of dedicated mri pulse sequences and scanners. Our detailed chemoarchitecture and cytoarchitecture with corresponding high resolution mri builds on previous atlases of the human brainstem and cerebellum, and makes precise identification of brainstem and cerebellar cell groups involved in clinical lesions accessible for both laboratory scientists and clinicians alike. This toolkit facilitates precise structural, diffusion, and functional mri coregistration, significantly advancing research into brainstem related disorders and neuroscientific inquiries.