Automatically detecting bregma and lambda points in rodent skull anatomy images

Currently, injection sites of probes, cannula, and optic fibers in stereotactic neurosurgery are typically located manually. This step involves location estimations based on human experiences and thus introduces errors. In order to reduce localization error and improve repeatability of experiments and treatments, we investigate an automated method to locate injection sites. This paper proposes a localization framework, which integrates a region-based convolutional network and a fully convolutional network, to locate specific anatomical points on skulls of rodents. Experiment results show that the proposed localization framework is capable of identifying and locatin bregma and lambda in rodent skull anatomy images with mean errors less than 300 μm. This method is robust to different lighting conditions and mouse orientations, and has the potential to simplify the procedure of locating injection sites.

Modern functional stereotactic neurosurgeric methods in treatment of neurological and mental disorders

The article presents a brief historical overview of the neurosurgical methods development in neurological and psychiatric practice. The article also presents modern methods of functional neurosurgery and the results of neurosurgical correction in the complex therapy of therapeutic resistant neurological and mental disorders. 57 patients with Parkinson’s disease and 32 patients with resistant obsessive-compulsive and depressive disorders had neurosurgical treatment. The using of functional stereotactic neurosurgery methods to overcome therapeutic resistance is safe and effective if the selection criteria and careful preoperative preparation, including the neuroimaging survey, will be met. But, for now the using of neurosurgical correction on the mentally ill is possible only in absolutely non-incurable cases.