Tools Development for Location of Deep Brain Stimulation

Abstract

This diploma thesis looks for a specific cerebral network related to tinnitus and develops a tool to target the most precise location for a potential surgery for using a deep brain stimulation. For this purpose, a functional brain connectivity data acquired at a rest (rs-fcMRI) were analyzed using a seed based method, in a group of tinnitus subjects in comparison with healthy subjects. This analysis method looks for the connectivity of the one specific region (the seed) with other regions within the brain. We could evidence a specific tinnitus network by using data from a functional magnetic resonance imaging and the right parietal operculum region as the seed. Since there is not an existing treatment for tinnitus, the research team from Grenoble suggests to use the deep brain stimulation (DBS) in subjects highly invalidated by their tinnitus. Further there was created a tool that could help to detect and accurately determine the location within this right operculum parietal region for the deep brain stimulation as a presurgical planning tool. The tool analyzes a voxel-to-voxel connectivity within the tinnitus network in an individual tinnitus patient. The tool can be used for other neural brain disorders than the tinnitus. The work was implemented in software MATLAB environment.