Holographic Brains Help Smart Minds Work Together

Duke University professor of biomedical engineering and neurosurgery Cameron McIntyre, Ph.D. and colleagues have spent the past seven years developing HoloSNS, a visualization tool that translates human brain scans into interactive holograms. Users can easily see where blood vessels are located alongside a roadmap of axonal pathways that reveal the crisscrossing connections between regions throughout the brain.

HoloSNS runs on AR headsets equipped with headphones and mics to allow both in-person and remote users to virtually examine and discuss the same brain in real-time. Currently, HoloSNS is used solely for research and educational purposes, which gives learners the ability to explore the multilayered brain in unprecedented detail.

The tech may one day help doctors plan complex surgeries with collaborators that are difficult to chart in 2D, such as removing brain tumors or implanting therapeutic electrodes for deep brain stimulation in patients with Parkinson’s disorder.