Kelley Daniel J, Farhoud Mohammed, Meyerand M Elizabeth, Nelson David L, Ramirez Lincoln F, Dempsey Robert J, Wolf Alan J, Alexander Andrew L, Davidson Richard J
Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, Waisman Center, Madison, Wisconsin, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2007 Oct 31;2(10):e1119. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001119.
The human brain and skull are three dimensional (3D) anatomical structures with complex surfaces. However, medical images are often two dimensional (2D) and provide incomplete visualization of structural morphology. To overcome this loss in dimension, we developed and validated a freely available, semi-automated pathway to build 3D virtual reality (VR) and hand-held, stereolithograph models. To evaluate whether surface visualization in 3D was more informative than in 2D, undergraduate students (n = 50) used the Gillespie scale to rate 3D VR and physical models of both a living patient-volunteer's brain and the skull of Phineas Gage, a historically famous railroad worker whose misfortune with a projectile tamping iron provided the first evidence of a structure-function relationship in brain. Using our processing pathway, we successfully fabricated human brain and skull replicas and validated that the stereolithograph model preserved the scale of the VR model. Based on the Gillespie ratings, students indicated that the biological utility and quality of visual information at the surface of VR and stereolithograph models were greater than the 2D images from which they were derived. The method we developed is useful to create VR and stereolithograph 3D models from medical images and can be used to model hard or soft tissue in living or preserved specimens. Compared to 2D images, VR and stereolithograph models provide an extra dimension that enhances both the quality of visual information and utility of surface visualization in neuroscience and medicine.
人类大脑和颅骨是具有复杂表面的三维（3D）解剖结构。然而，医学图像通常是二维（2D）的，无法完整呈现结构形态。为了克服这种维度上的缺失，我们开发并验证了一种免费的半自动方法，用于构建3D虚拟现实（VR）模型和手持式立体光刻模型。为了评估3D表面可视化是否比2D更具信息性，我们让50名本科生使用吉莱斯皮量表，对一名活体患者志愿者的大脑以及历史上著名的铁路工人菲尼亚斯·盖奇的颅骨的3D VR模型和实体模型进行评分。盖奇曾不幸被射弹夯铁击中，这一事件首次证明了大脑中结构与功能的关系。通过我们的处理方法，我们成功制作了人类大脑和颅骨复制品，并验证了立体光刻模型保留了VR模型的比例。根据吉莱斯皮评分，学生们表示，VR模型和立体光刻模型表面视觉信息的生物学效用和质量高于其所源自的2D图像。我们开发的方法有助于从医学图像创建VR和立体光刻3D模型，可用于对活体或保存标本中的硬组织或软组织进行建模。与2D图像相比，VR和立体光刻模型提供了一个额外的维度，提高了神经科学和医学中视觉信息的质量以及表面可视化的效用。
