Photograph Of Brain Wins Award

 Neuroscience

One of the winners of the recent Wellcome Trust Image Awards is a stunning photograph of an epileptic patient's brain during a surgical procedure.

The Wellcome Trust — a London-based medical research charity — has just announced the winners of its 2012 image competition, and they are absolutely stunning.

In the photograph above by one of the winners, Robert Ludlow  the surface (cortex) of a human brain belonging to an epileptic patient. The image displays the bright red arteries that supply the brain with nutrients and oxygen and the purple veins that remove deoxygenated blood. This photograph was taken before an intracranial electrode recording procedure for epilepsy, in which electrical activity is measured from the exposed surface of the brain.

As one of the judges, Alice Roberts (anatomist, author and TV presenter) explains: "This is a stunning image. Taken during an operation, which allows surgeons access to inside the skull, for recording electrical impulses, we are looking at the surface of a living brain. It's just extraordinary: the 'grey' matter (which is grey in death) is blushing pink. Small arteries are glowing with the scarlet blood pulsing through them, while purple veins lie thickly in the sulci, the crevices of the brain. And underneath that is somebody's mind. For me, the context, the composition and the clarity of this image made it a winner."

This photograph was an integral part of the operative process. First, this initial image was taken of the brain in its natural state. The surgeon then attached a flexible electrode grid, with a unique series of numbers at regular intervals along it, to the surface of the brain. Once the grid was applied, a second photograph was taken to record its position. The patient then underwent a CT scan to confirm the correct location of the grid implant on the brain and was taken to the telemetry ward, where they were observed and the electrical activity of their brain was recorded for up to two weeks. Post-observation, the surgeon reviewed the recordings and evaluated the data using the unique numbers on the grid implant, which was then used to identify the specific areas of the brain to be removed during the next operation. This patient made a full recovery and no longer suffers from epileptic fits.

SOURCE  Wellcome Trust

By 33rd Square

Subscribe to 33rd Square