Lesion analysis

The study of patients with focal brain lesions is critical for testing theories of brain function, as well as for developing a better understanding of the cognitive deficits underlying particular neurological syndromes.

In recent years, there has been an improvement in the techniques used to map brain lesions. The use of high-resolution MR acquisitions (1mmx1mmx1mm) combined with detailed analysis of lesion maps has led to greater precision of structure-functional correlation.

One technique requires segmentation of ‘native’ (un-normalized) brain images using anatomical landmarks. The second involves normalization and analysis using SPM. Both these methods have recently been applied to the study of visual neglect, the anatomy of which has become a highly controversial topic.

It is likely that the application of more sophisticated statistical procedures will greatly improve further developments in this field over the next few years.

Further reading: Mort DJ, Malhotra P, Mannan SK, Rorden C, Pambakian A, Kennard C, Husain M. (2003) The anatomy of neglect. Brain 126: 1986-97.

This page last modified 17 November, 2011 by [ICN Web Team]

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