Mapping brain activity is the standard procedure used to identify those parts of the brain responsible for a particular cognitive task—for instance, gaining sensory input when one pokes a cat with a finger or gets implicated in pathological processes like sleep disorders or epileptic seizures. Brain activity is generally recorded via magnetoencephalography (MEG) or electroencephalography (EEG). However, the MRI scans used together with brain activity maps are at times imperfect. They can be corrupted due to noise and other image artifacts. This results in image segmentation.
To eliminate this hurdle, researchers have created a method that can interpret brain activity data. The evidence dictates that results were five times more accurate than the traditional technique present today. The techniques taken into consideration were ones used when MRI data consisted of artifacts or low-resolution head models. The findings suggested could lead to a significant boom within Brain Fingerprinting Market as it could help treat drug-resistant epilepsy. Further, it could also enable researchers to grasp cognitive processes inside a healthy brain, including how it records new words or responds to visual stimuli.
The team, during their research, discovered that if modeling neural activity needs to be undertaken for low-resolution head models, their described method was way more effective than any conventional approach. Although it indeed demands a massive computational load, the benefits received are more prominent than its application.
The research denotes that cognitive scientists, brain surgeons, and neurologists finally have a powerful tool in their hands when dealing with less than perfect data. This technique can understand the neurological basis of diseases like autism, epilepsy, and attention deficit disorder. It may also empower them to grasp healthy cognitive processes related to memory, locomotion, sensual perception, and more.
EEG has been around for a century, and different neural activities have been well-studied through it. EEG or MEG data are paired with high-resolution MRI scans, which model the patient's head and are processed using modern computer algorithms to locate the precise hotspots in the brain responsible for epileptic seizures. The troublesome region must be precisely localized to make this process successful. This is essential for operating upon the affected area without damaging the nearby tissue to help patients suffering from epilepsy where even the drugs do not work. The current technique does this and, as a result, can be a crucial factor in assisting medical workers in the treatment of individuals suffering from diseases like cancer or epilepsy, among others.