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Updated: Jun 23, 2026
Measuring and Manipulating Functionally Specific Neural Pathways in the Human Motor System with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Published on: February 23, 2020
Computer-assisted automatic localization of the human pedunculopontine nucleus in T1-weighted MR images: a
Yili Fu1, Wenpeng Gao, Minwei Zhu
1State Key Laboratory of Robotics and System, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
Background:
The pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) is a new promising target of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. This study was to develop a method of computer-assisted automatic localization of the PPN in T1-weighted MR images.
Methods:
A 3D template of a segment of the brainstem containing the PPN was constructed. A knowledge-based, hierarchical method of template-to-subject registration was proposed to register the template to the subject's data to locate the subject's PPN.
Results:
Experiments were performed with both T1-weighted and proton density MR images acquired from 12 people. Preliminary results show that the proposed method can locate the PPN with an error of 1.83 +/- 0.42 mm for its rostral pole and 1.57 +/- 0.34 mm for its caudal pole.
Conclusion:
The proposed method is automatic, robust and accurate in the localization of the PPN, which demonstrates utility for preoperative surgical planning.
