Mithra: An Open-Source and Cross-Platform Visualization Toolbox for Human Intracranial Recordings

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Computational Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Intracranial electrophysiological recordings (ECoG, sEEG) offer high spatiotemporal resolution for studying human brain function.
• Existing tools often lack comprehensive solutions for systematic within- and across-subject analyses, particularly in preserving subject-specific anatomy during standardization.
• Accurate electrode localization and visualization are crucial for integrating individual data into standardized neuroimaging spaces.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce Mithra, a novel toolkit designed for the visualization and analysis of intracranial recordings.
• To provide a unified framework that addresses the limitations of current tools in systematic within- and across-subject analyses.
• To enable precise mapping of electrodes to standardized anatomical spaces while maintaining individual subject anatomy.

Main Methods:

• Development of Mithra, a cross-platform toolkit implemented in Python and MATLAB.
• Integration of electrode visualization with brain surfaces and anatomical annotations.
• Support for localization in common average spaces (MNI, FreeSurfer) and alignment with individual anatomy.
• Implementation of cortical surface projection for generating activity-based Gaussian heatmaps.

Main Results:

• Mithra enables visualization of intracranial electrodes alongside brain anatomy.
• The toolkit supports accurate electrode localization in standardized spaces (MNI, FreeSurfer) while preserving individual anatomical alignment.
• It facilitates the generation of spatial heatmaps of neural activity through cortical projection.
• Mithra offers a flexible, unified solution for both within- and across-subject analyses.

Conclusions:

• Mithra provides a comprehensive solution for visualizing and analyzing intracranial electrophysiological data.
• The toolkit enhances systematic neuroscientific research by enabling robust within- and across-subject analyses.
• Mithra's capabilities support advanced mapping and spatial analysis of neural activity in standardized brain spaces.