Teaching image-guided stereotactic methodology and functional neuroanatomy of the thalamus and pallidum: A simple ex vivo technique

A simple and cheap model that enables on site, ex vivo, but very practical, learning of frame-based image-guided stereotactic technique and methodology, and the functional anatomy of the pallidum and thalamus is described. Using a cadaver skull, a specially prepared, formalin-fixed cadaver brain, and a modified stereotactic probe application of a stereotactic frame to the cranium, fiducial point acquisition, target point acquisition, computation of both are and probe depth settings, and verification of target point accuracy can all be practiced. If diencephalic targets are selected for targeting with ball bearings then section of the cadaver brains, and study of a human thalamic stereotactic atlas provides an excellent and clinically relevant method of learning functionally important thalamic and pallidal anatomy. The method and techniques are described for CT imaging using the Brown-Roberts-Wells frame, but they are equally applicable to other frame types.