Visualization of Neural Targets With 3T MRI
Functional neurosurgery is dedicated to modulating aberrant neural circuits associated with a wide range of neurological conditions. Recently, technological advances in MRI have permitted marked improvements in the direct visualization of neural targets, which is necessary for the accurate targeting in functional neurosurgery procedures. This research study focuses on imaging patient brains before their scheduled procedures by using a 3 tesla (T) MRI to provide higher resolution and quality brain images. The reason for this study is to assess the image quality using different MRI sequences or settings to improve the image resolution of the most common functional neurosurgery targets (e.g., subthalamic nucleus, globus pallidus, and thalamus) and compare the image quality of the brains in patients with healthy controls. Performing a preoperative MRI is standard-of-care for patients indicated for deep brain stimulation (DBS), gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS), radiofrequency ablation (RFA), magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS). MRI sequence parameters shown to improve the image quality of different neural structures in a recent literature review (Boutet et al. 2021) will be reproduced on the 3T MRI at Toronto Western Hospital.
• Age between 18 and 85 years of age.
• Preparing to undergo a functional neurosurgical intervention (e.g., DBS, RFA, GKR or MRgFUS) at TWH (not applicable for healthy volunteers).
• Participants must be able to understand the purpose of this research and must sign the informed consent form.
• Participants must understand that the role of this research is to enhance our understanding of brain functioning and that he/she will not directly or indirectly benefit from the study.