Credit: Dr. Evan Calabrese, Duke Medicine
The X-shaped pathway of nerve fibers represents the dentatorubrothalamic tract (DRT), a pathway inside the thalamus that researchers target with deep brain stimulation to halt uncontrolled tremors. Scientists at Duke Medicine have used ultra high-resolution MRI imaging to produce a 3-D model of the brain stem that offers unprecedented detail of neuronal circuitry that could be used to target treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.