Navigating the brain

The University of Queensland has installed a new leading-edge guidance system for brain research, offering insights into human psychoses, Parkinson’s Disease, movement disorders and cerebral trauma.

The new system is the only one in Australia and one of the few in the world to be used for research.

Installed at UQ’s School of Human Movement Studies, the Frameless Stereotactic Guidance system, as it is known, was funded by a Wellcome Trust grant of $435,000 to the faculties of Health Sciences and Biological and Chemical Sciences, and by the University.

“The precise working of the human brain remains one of the biggest mysteries in science today,” says researcher Dr Richard Carson.

There have been tremendous technological advances in brain imaging and in techniques to stimulate the brain using magnetic pulses, but up until recently these approaches have been quite separate.

“The new guidance system, however, allows researchers to precisely deliver magnetic stimulation to cortical structures that have been identified using brain imaging.

Frameless Stereotactic Guidance involves the use of laser contour registration to locate infrared markers that are secured to the scalp and prominent landmarks on the skull.

The same landmarks are visible in scans of the brain obtained by magnetic resonance imaging. A computer is then used to merge the two data sets, and to guide a magnetic stimulating coil to specific areas of the brain. “Stereotactic” is coined from Latin and Greek words, meaning “touch in space”.

The combined use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and the relatively new technique of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation or TMS is likely to be a cornerstone of new developments in cognitive neuroscience.

“The innovative use of these techniques in basic and applied biomedical research presents the opportunity to significantly advance our understanding of higher brain functions,” Dr Carson said.

Media: for more information contact Peter McCutcheon at UQ Communications on 07 3365 1088 or 0413 380012