Although carefully removing precise parts of patients’ brains is a common treatment for some conditions – such as tumour removal or for drug-resistant epilepsy – researchers have now found that its effects extend farther than we knew.
Using MRtrix3 software that digitally reconstructs how regions of the brain are connected – before and after surgery – diffusion MRI scans have shown that brain regions untouched by surgery can be affected.
The changes are not random, but instead “can lead to degeneration of cells at the endpoints of these connections, which then in return can cascade to other connected parts of the brain,” said Dr Philip Pruckner, who won the prestigious Austrian Ernst Niedermeyer Prize for Epileptology for the research.
Mrtrix3 developer Dr Robert Smith was pleased to emphasise that the study prompted development of new methods, which have now been integrated into the open-access software for other researchers’ use.
Dr Pruckner believes that using these kinds of advanced imaging methods could further improve already-safe surgeries by helping to: predict the effects of surgical interventions, guide even more precise and individualised surgical planning, preserve more brain tissue that does not need removing, and minimise brain network disruptions.
This news was adapted from The Florey’s article, based on published research in Brain.