Mixed reality as a time-efficient alternative to cadaveric dissection.

Objectives: The extent of medical knowledge increases yearly, but the time available for students to learn is limited, leading to administrative pressures to revise and reconfigure medical school curricula. The goal of the present study is to determine whether the mixed reality platform HoloAnatomy represents an effective and time-efficient modality to learn anatomy when compared to traditional cadaveric dissection.Methods: This was a prospective, longitudinal study of medical students completing a musculoskeletal anatomy course at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Participants were divided into two groups based on learning platform (HoloAnatomy versus traditional cadaveric dissection) and content area (upper limb versus lower limb anatomy). Time spent in lab and end of course practical exam scores were compared between groups.Results: The average study time of 48 medical students who completed study requirements was 4.564 h using HoloAnatomy and 7.318 h in the cadaver lab (p = 0.001). No significant difference was found between exam scores for HoloAnatomy and cadaver learners (p = 0.185).Conclusions: Our results indicate that HoloAnatomy may decrease the time necessary for anatomy didactics without sacrificing student understanding of the material.

Stereo-EEG-guided network modulation for psychiatric disorders: Interactive holographic planning.

BACKGROUND: Connectomic modeling studies are expanding understanding of the brain networks that are modulated by deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapies. However, explicit integration of these modeling results into prospective neurosurgical planning is only beginning to evolve. One challenge of employing connectomic models in patient-specific surgical planning is the inherent 3D nature of the results, which can make clinically useful data integration and visualization difficult. METHODS: We developed a holographic stereotactic neurosurgery research tool (HoloSNS) that integrates patient-specific brain models into a group-based visualization environment for interactive surgical planning using connectomic hypotheses. HoloSNS currently runs on the HoloLens 2 platform and it enables remote networking between headsets. This allowed us to perform surgical planning group meetings with study co-investigators distributed across the country. RESULTS: We used HoloSNS to plan stereo-EEG and DBS electrode placements for each patient participating in a clinical trial (NCT03437928) that is targeting both the subcallosal cingulate and ventral capsule for the treatment of depression. Each patient model consisted of multiple components of scientific data and anatomical reconstructions of the head and brain (both patient-specific and atlas-based), which far exceed the data integration capabilities of traditional neurosurgical planning workstations. This allowed us to prospectively discuss and evaluate the positioning of the electrodes based on novel connectomic hypotheses. CONCLUSIONS: The 3D nature of the surgical procedure, brain imaging data, and connectomic modeling results all highlighted the utility of employing holographic visualization to support the design of unique clinical experiments to explore brain network modulation with DBS.

Holographic Reconstruction of Axonal Pathways in the Human Brain.

Three-dimensional documentation of the axonal pathways connecting gray matter components of the human brain has wide-ranging scientific and clinical applications. Recent attempts to map human structural connectomes have concentrated on using tractography results derived from diffusion-weighted imaging data, but tractography is an indirect method with numerous limitations. Advances in holographic visualization platforms provide a new medium to integrate anatomical data, as well as a novel working environment for collaborative interaction between neuroanatomists and brain-imaging scientists. Therefore, we developed the first holographic interface for building axonal pathways, populated it with human histological and structural MRI data, and assembled world expert neuroanatomists to interactively define axonal trajectories of the cortical, basal ganglia, and cerebellar systems. This blending of advanced visualization hardware, software development, and neuroanatomy data enabled the translation of decades of amassed knowledge into a human axonal pathway atlas that can be applied to educational, scientific, or clinical investigations.