Interactive 3D Brain Explorer:

Interactive 3D Brain Explorer: Anatomy, Stimulation, and Disorder Dynamics Concept. We propose an interactive 3D brain platform that unifies three things usually encountered in isolation: neuroanatomy, deep brain stimulation (DBS), and the electrophysiological signatures of neurological disorders. The user explores a real cortical and subcortical brain in 3D, clicks on any structure to learn what it does, places stimulation electrodes on established therapeutic targets, and observes how simulated brain-wide activity — EEG and fMRI — shifts under disorder-like conditions. The aim is a single, hands-on environment that connects where something is in the brain to what it does and what happens when it goes wrong. Anatomical exploration. The core is a real atlas brain surface with a parcellation overlay, so cortical regions and subcortical nuclei are individually selectable. Clicking a region highlights it and opens a curated information exhibit: its primary function, key connections, and the disorders associated with it. This turns a passive 3D viewer into a navigable knowledge base, accessible to students, clinicians, and researchers alike without specialist training. Deep brain stimulation module. Building on an existing DBS recording explorer, users select canonical targets — the subthalamic nucleus for Parkinson's disease, and the ventral intermediate thalamic nucleus and zona incerta for essential tremor. An electrode is placed along a realistic trajectory, and the recorded local field potential is displayed with live spectral analysis and neural-state decoding. Signals are explicitly labelled by provenance (real, demonstration, or simulated), and off-target placements disable analysis — a deliberate guardrail reflecting real clinical constraints. Disorder dynamics. Rather than claiming to predict a patient's individual EEG or fMRI, the platform demonstrates disorder dynamics in two legitimate ways. First, it presents well-documented characteristic signatures — such as beta-band hypersynchrony in Parkinson's, generalized slowing in dementia, or epileptiform discharges — clearly framed as representative. Second, it uses whole-brain neural-mass modelling on a structural connectome to simulate EEG and BOLD-fMRI, letting users apply region-level perturbations (altered excitation, coupling, or a focal lesion) and watch simulated activity move toward a disorder-like regime. Because the simulation is driven from the same regions the user selects, mechanism and anatomy stay tightly linked. Novelty and contribution. The novelty lies in coupling an anatomical 3D scene, a working stimulation module, and mechanistic disorder simulation in one real-time, click-to-explore interface. Most tools address only one of these. A recurring design principle is honesty about data and models — every output is labelled by its source and status, so the tool teaches without overclaiming.