Functional neuronavigation combined with intra-operative 3D ultrasound: Initial experiences during surgical resections close to eloquent brain areas and future directions in automatic brain shift compensation of preoperative data

Objective. The aims of this study were: 1) To develop protocols for, integration and assessment of the usefulness of high quality fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) data in an ultrasound-based neuronavigation system. 2) To develop and demonstrate a co-registration method for automatic brain-shift correction of pre-operative MR data using intra-operative 3D ultrasound.