Wieslaw L. Nowinski

A number of stereotactic brain atlases in printed form have been constructed since the 1950s. A major limitation to their use has been the difficulty in mapping the printed information into an individual brain. Advances in computers have spawned a renaissance of brain atlases in electronic form. The electronic atlases overcome many limitations of the printed atlases and open new avenues. Deformable electronic atlases can be warped against patient’s scan, and are more convenient and flexible to use.
We have constructed a brain atlas database containing electronic versions of the classic Thieme brain atlases: Schaltenbrand - Wahren, Talairach - Tournoux, Referentially Oriented Talairach - Tournoux, and Ono-Kubik-Abernathey. The electronic atlases feature the high quality processed atlas plates, and fully segmented and labeled structures. The anatomical index has about 1000 structures per hemisphere, and over 400 sulcal patterns. 3D extensions of the atlases are constructed, and all 2D and 3D atlases are mutually registered.
We have also built a probabilistic functional atlas (PFA) from electrophysiological and neuroimaging data acquired during the treatment of Parkinson’s disease patients. In addition, we have developed an Internet portal for stereotactic and functional neurosurgery. It contains the PFA and tools for its calculation, presentation, and use. Neurosurgeons and neuroscientists themselves will be able to expand the content of the PFA and exchange data over the Internet.
Development of applications facilitating the atlas use in neurosurgery, neuroradiology, human brain mapping, and neuroeducation is another area of our activity. In stereotactic and functional neurosurgery a computerized atlas is useful for anatomical targeting, structure labeling, and brain mapping. Potential benefits of the atlas use include improved targeting, increased confidence, lower cost, and reduced time. Our Cerefy Brain Atlas Database has become the standard, already integrated with major image guided surgery systems including the StealthStation (Medtronic), Target (BrainLAB), SurgiPlan (Elekta), SNN 3 Image Guided Surgery System (Surgical Navigation Network), and a neurosurgical robot NeuroMate (Integrated Surgical Systems).
The brain atlas is also useful is neuroradiology. It allows for faster scan examination, communicating information on the interpreted scan from the neuroradiologist to other clinical professionals, and increases neuroradiologist anatomical and spatial confidence. For neuroradiological applications, we have developed the Cerefy Neuroradiology Atlas.
The atlas is applicable for human brain mapping and medical image analysis. The Brain Atlas for Functional Imaging is empowered with tools for localization analysis of functional images. In addition, our atlas is integrated with Mayo’s Analyze – the gold standard for medical image analysis.

About the speaker

Wieslaw L. Nowinski, DSc, PhD is the director of the Biomedical Imaging Lab at the Institute of Engineering, Biopolis, Singapore. His research interests include neuroimaging, brain atlases, computer-assisted intervention, virtual reality simulation, modeling, visualization, segmentation, and registration.
He has developed nine brain atlas products used worldwide in neurosurgery, brain mapping, neuroradiology, and neuroeducation. He has co-authored three brain atlas CD-ROMs distributed by Thieme, New York-Stuttgart. Two companies have been spun off from his lab. He has filed eight patents and contributed more than 160 articles to professional journals and international conferences. He is also conferred with awards from RSNA, ECR, ASNR, and nationally.