An enlightening
video series launched by the SC conference steering committee in 2013
aims to illustrate how high performance computing is impacting everyday
life – from manufacturing to storm prediction to the making of Hollywood
blockbusters. The latest in the series is a short video highlighting
the innovative work being done at the University of Utah’s Scientific
Computing and Imaging Institute in regards to helping Parkinson’s
patients lead more normal lives through deep brain stimulation (DBS). The Institute helps doctors pinpoint brain stimulation sites
that relieve tremors in Parkinson’s patients and drastically improve
quality of life.
Here's the short video and accompanying article with specific details.
Although it may sound like something straight from a scene in a science fiction film, new surgery techniques that place a set of wires under the skull to transmit electrical signals to different areas of the brain has gotten even more effective with the help of computers. It's called deep brain stimulation, or DBS. And if the idea of it seems a bit wince-inducing or scary, then understanding the power of what it can do - quiet the tremors associated with Parkinson's disease and other brain disorders - will likely wash away any patient's fears and it is being enhanced via high performance computing and visualization.
FDA-approved in 1997, DBS involves the surgical implantation of a neurostimulator device - a sort of brain pacemaker - into the chest along with a set of wires, known as leads, which together send electrical impulses to various parts of the brain in order to activate brain circuits. This can alleviate the symptoms associated with movement disorders, most commonly Parkinson's, essential tremor, and dystonia.
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| Computational models of DBS are created by combining medical imaging, bioelectric field models and populations of multicompartmental neuron models. Butson & McIntyre, Brain Stim, 2008. |
Recently the program hired Christopher Butson, PhD, as its director of neuromodulation research. An expert in neurostimulation devices and neuromodulation therapy, Dr. Butson came to Utah from the Biotechnology and Bioengineering Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. One of Dr. Butson’s goals is to use neurostimulation therapy to improve the lives of patients with a range of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Another key component in Dr. Butson's work: data. UUHC has an extensive high performance computing infrastructure that is the raw material for much of his work. Much of those rich details were not - but now will be - mined for contributions to new discovery and innovation.
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| Computational models can make detailed predictions about the effects of stimulation in individual subjects based on biophysical tissue properties derived from diffusion tensor imaging. In the bottom right image, an area of DBS-induced activation are shown as it impinges on surrounding nuclei. Butson et al, NeuroImage, 2007. |
"The one thing we aspire to do in my lab is to combine computational models with patient data to create insights that would be difficult to achieve otherwise," he says. One of Dr. Butson's most promising ideas: an iPad based interactive computer program that creates a three-dimensional picture of the brain. This provides clinicians with a better look at a patient's brain and helps them make better predictions about DBS lead placements, stimulation settings and effects.
It also saves time. Clinicians who used the program in a small pilot study reduced device programming time by 99 percent. The program, which allows for simulated stimulation of the brain's circuits, may eventually help enhance the precision of surgical targets and DBS treatment for a multitude of disorders and diseases. Dr. Butson and Co-PI Dr. Michael Okun at the University of Florida were recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a clinical trial of this system in a much larger cohort of patients. It's something that until recently couldn't really be done, but has been made possible by advances in medical imaging technology - another area of research that UUHC helped advance.
"Where the field is going is toward circuit-based therapy... and we hope that 3D modeling will allow us to see this in a totally different way," Dr. Butson says. "So integrating the best information we can get from all different types of imaging and incorporating that into predictive models... this is the bleeding edge of DBS research."
More About SC15:
SC15, sponsored by the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE Computer Society, offers a complete technical program, programs for students and educators in HPC, and an exhibition that together showcase the many ways high performance computing, networking, storage and analysis lead to advances in scientific discovery, research, education and commerce. This premier international conference includes a globally attended technical program, workshops, tutorials, a world class exhibit area, demonstrations and opportunities for hands-on learning.
More About the University of Utah Scientific Computing and Imaging (SCI) Institute:
The SCI Institute is an interdisciplinary research institute consisting of more than 200 faculty, staff, and students. It has established itself as an internationally recognized leader in visualization, scientific computing, and image analysis applied to a broad range of important application. A particular hallmark of SCI Institute research is the development of innovative and robust software packages, including the SCIRun scientific problem solving environment, Seg3D, ImageVis3D, FEBio, Shapeworks, and FluoRender. All these packages are broadly available to the scientific community under open source licensing and supported by web pages, documentation, and users groups.
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