Quantitative comparison of functional MRI and direct electrocortical stimulation for functional mapping

Area of Science:

• Neurosurgery
• Neuroimaging
• Medical Engineering

Background:

• Accurate mapping of functional brain areas is crucial for successful tumor resections.
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is increasingly used for presurgical planning.
• Validating fMRI's consistency with intraoperative direct electrocortical stimulation (DECS) mapping is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively compare DECS and fMRI mapping techniques for brain tumor surgery.
• To assess the agreement between fMRI activation maps and DECS stimulation maps.

Main Methods:

• Employed patient-specific conductivity models to determine current distribution from DECS sites.
• Compared DECS stimulation maps with fMRI activation maps using the maximal Dice similarity coefficient (MDSC).

Main Results:

• Some agreement was observed between DECS and fMRI mapping techniques.
• Only the stimulation site with the largest maximal overlap similarity coefficient (MOSC) showed an intraoperative effect.

Conclusions:

• Significant efforts are underway to enhance functional brain mapping techniques, especially fMRI.
• fMRI is anticipated to become a reliable non-invasive method for functional brain mapping in presurgical planning.