Rogue Research News

Rogue Research Inc. invites you to join us at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., where we’ll be exhibiting at Booth #130 in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from Nov. 11-15.  In addition to having our full product line available to try, we’ll be joined by our Montreal and US-based team members to demonstrate our latest innovations in brain stimulation, neuronavigation, and veterinary neurosurgery.

On display will be our Brainsight Navigator, Elevate TMS and new robotic device that integrates neuronavigated targeting, robotics, and precision stimulation to enhance human non-invasive brain stimulation. We’re also bringing our veterinary microsurgical robot that uses computer vision, high resolution brain imaging and a high-precision robot to extend the accuracy of image-guided neurosurgery into the hundred micron range.

SFN provides a unique opportunity for us to connect with the thousands of users of our products and to share our innovations with the field. Looking forward to seeing you in Washington!

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.5.2.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• macOS 10.13 High Sierra is now the minimum requirement, increased from macOS 10.11 El Capitan in Brainsight 2.4. For a free update, visit <https://support.apple.com/macos/upgrade>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), 11.7.10 (Big Sur), 12.7 (Monterey), 13.6 (Ventura), and 14.0 (Sonoma).
• Mac OS X 10.12 (Sierra) and earlier are unsupported.

Changes since version 2.5.1:

• Added calculation and display of EMG latency using the SHTE algorithm (by Šoda, Vidaković, Lorincz, Jerković, and Vujović). The Perform and Review windows now have a new optional table column that can show the latency for each sample. In addition, waveform views now draw a vertical line at the latency time. This line can be dragged to adjust the automatically computed value if it seems incorrect. Latency can also be streamed to a .txt file from the Perform window, and exported to a .txt file from the Review window.
• Each surface-type reconstruction can now be configured to participate in overlay blending or not. If the option is off, overlays will never be blended on that surface. If the option is on, overlays will be blended atop that surface, provided the overlay is enabled in the Inspector window (as usual). This option is off by default.
• A tool calibration’s 4×4 matrix can now be exported to a MINC .xfm text file.
• The Vet Robot can now be moved relative to the currently used tool.
• The Session Polaris window now allows selecting the Polaris, and also has a button in bring up the Polaris Configuration window.
• More windows now have the option of showing the crosshair’s numerical coordinates (at the bottom right).
• Fixed a bug where some projects with corrupt NIRS data would fail to load.
• Fixed a longstanding bug where the brightness/contrast slider did not work in the Curvilinear From Overlay and Surface From Overlay windows when an overlay was used as the source of the reconstruction.
• Fixed a bug where Brainsight would not automatically connect to a Polaris, even if it was detected.
• Fixed a bug where some image views would stop drawing after Brainsight was running in the background.
• Fixed a crash creating motor maps on old Macs with Nvidia GPUs.
• Improved performance creating motor maps on Macs with Apple Silicon processors.
• Fixed several crashes that could occur when opening corrupt files of various formats.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.5.2 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download the latest “Support Files Human” and/or “Support Files Vet” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have announced a new non-invasive technique for brain biopsies using focused ultrasound (fUS) to open the blood-brain barrier. The study used Brainsight to accurately localize the ultrasound probe over their targets. See their news release for details.

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.5.1.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• macOS 10.13 High Sierra is now the minimum requirement, increased from macOS 10.11 El Capitan in Brainsight 2.4. For a free update, visit <https://support.apple.com/macos/upgrade>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), 11.7.8 (Big Sur), 12.6.7 (Monterey), and 13.4.1 (Ventura).
• Mac OS X 10.12 (Sierra) and earlier are unsupported.

Changes since version 2.5:

• Fixed a crash in the Tool Calibrations window when using a TTL trigger to start the calibration procedure.
• There is now a user-resizable box in the ROI window to constrain the extent of the seed flood fill.
• There is a new disc shape option for targets and samples.
• Added support for the new Polaris Lyra® position sensor.
• Fixed a bug where vector fields from SimNIBS simulations were sometimes not shown correctly in the Session Perform and Session Review windows.
• Fixed a bug where the Park and Welcome buttons to move the Axilum robot/cobot were disabled when they shouldn’t have been.
• If a sample cannot be created, a brief error message is now shown.
• Improved the robustness of the Vet Robot stereo calibration procedure.
• Fixed an error in the header comments of the stream-to-file feature.
• Fixed a bug where zooming a waveform image view sometimes did not work.
• Fixed a bug where the time index of 4D datasets was not shown correctly.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.5.1 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download the latest “Support Files Human” and/or “Support Files Vet” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.5.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• macOS 10.13 High Sierra is now the minimum requirement, increased from macOS 10.11 El Capitan in Brainsight 2.4. For a free update, visit <https://support.apple.com/macos/upgrade>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against macOS 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), 11.7.4 (Big Sur), 12.6.3 (Monterey), and 13.2 (Ventura).
• Mac OS X 10.12 (Sierra) and earlier are unsupported.

Important Compatibility Note:

• The project file format has changed. Brainsight 2.5 can open documents created by older versions of Brainsight, but older versions of Brainsight cannot open documents created by Brainsight 2.5.

Changes since version 2.4.11:

• Brainsight can now simulate the induced electric field due to a TMS stimulation at a target location. It does this by interacting with SimNIBS, a third party software that must also be installed. The Targets window now allows associating a TMS coil model and stimulation strength with each target. The resulting simulation appears overlaid in 2D and 3D images, and can be customized from the Inspector window.
• 3D reconstructions (like the skin reconstruction) are now coloured by blending any enabled overlays atop the reconstruction’s own colour.
• Overlays now support time series data (though only from NIfTI and MINC2 files, not other formats). The Overlays window and Inspector window now have a new slider to choose the time offset.
• Very large datasets (with more than 2^31 voxels) can now be used.
• Made various accuracy improvements to Vet Robot stereo calibration and subject registration, resulting in more accurate targeting during surgery.
• In the Session Perform window, creating new samples is now disallowed if the relevant Polaris tools are not visible.
• In the Session Perform window, the ‘stream to file’ feature now includes EMG waveform data and the coordinate system for selected targets and created samples.
• In the Session Perform window, the ‘Sample Now’ button is now disabled if the required tools are not visible to the Polaris camera.
• When working with the Axilum robot/cobot, a new ‘scalp offset’ distance can be specified to keep the TMS coil a few millimetres above the scalp to account for the thickness of an EEG cap for example.
• EMG waveform views now visually indicate when a waveform has exceeded the EMG pod device’s maximum range of 2.25 mV.
• Added support for the Cornell University (Johnson, Philippa J; Barry, Erica F) canine atlas.
• Fixed various bugs with some DICOM datasets, where images would appear split in half, have gaps, or have missing slices.
• Fixed a longstanding bug where reconstructions based on ROIs would claim that re-computation was necessary, even though the ROI hadn’t changed. (This was partly fixed in 2.4, but still occurred for re-opened projects.)
• ROIs can now be created by importing from a medical image file (DICOM, NIfTI, MINC, etc.).
• Fixed a bug in the ROI window where the pencil and eraser tools would not work correctly at the edge of view, especially when moving the mouse quickly.
• NIRS waveforms can be imported from a .nirs file, thus allowing importing data from other manufacturers’ NIRS devices.
• Fixed a bug (introduced in Brainsight 2.4.11) where the SD.SrcPos and SD.SrcPos3D fields in exported .nirs files were swapped.
• Fixed a bug (introduced in Brainsight 2.4.5) where the SD.SrcPos field in exported .nirs files were in decimetres instead of centimetres. (The SD.SrcPos3D field was exported correctly in millimetres though.)
• Assembly Lists and Cap Layouts can now be created by importing from a .nirs file.
• Calibrating a TMS coil or other tool now allows for the tool tracker and calibration tracker to move together (relative to the camera), instead of failing if either tool moved relative to the camera.
• Polaris tool visibility status now uses a larger coloured area, making it more visible from father away.
• The enabled/disabled state of Polaris tools in the Polaris Configuration window are now remembered across quit/relaunch.
• Landmarks, targets, electrodes, and samples can now be clicked in 3D image views to select the corresponding item in the related table view.
• Targets can now be exported to a text file from the Targets window (export was previously possible, but only from the Session Review window).
• In the Targets window, if a reconstruction is chosen in the ‘optimize traj. to’ popup menu, clicking in 2D views no longer reorients crosshairs.
• Exporting curvilinear reconstructions in the PLY format now includes the voxel values in greyscale, whereas previously no colour was exported, only the shape.
• When exporting reconstructions as STL, VTK, and PLY you can now choose between the ASCII and binary variants of these file formats.
• When importing a reconstruction from file, the object can now be placed relative to a chosen target (useful for placing chambers for example).
• The crosshairs in 2D image views now have a small gap in the middle so as not to obscure the very thing being targeted.
• Wherever 4×4 matrices can be imported from a file, a new file format is now supported namely plain text files with 16 numbers within.
• The crosshairs offset slider now allows a large range.
• When opening a project file, if there are referenced external files (datasets, CAD files) that can’t be found, the dialog that asks to find them now (by default) disables files with different names, thus making it much easier to find the correct file.
• A new preference allows changing the colours of the bullseye views, especially useful for colour blind users.
• A new preference allows changing the font size of the bullseye views.
• A new preference allows specifying default EMG baseline and trial durations that will be used when creating new sessions.
• Native support for Apple Silicon processors.
• Improved support for macOS 11 Big Sur, macOS 12 Monterey, and macOS 13 Ventura.
• Various performance improvements:
  • Exporting DXF files is now much faster, especially for large reconstructions.
  • Updating an atlas space template overlay is now much faster.
  • Reorienting the anatomical dataset is now much faster.
  • Creating curvilinear reconstructions is now much faster.
  • Creating skin and other surface reconstructions is faster.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.5 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download the latest “Support Files Human” and/or “Support Files Vet” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.4.11.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later is required. For a free update, visit <https://support.apple.com/macos/upgrade>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), 11.6.7 (Big Sur), and 12.4 (Monterey)
• Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and 10.12 (Sierra) are now only lightly tested.
• Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier are unsupported.

Important Compatibility Note:

• If you are already using the Brainsight 2.5 beta, don’t install this version. A new 2.5 beta is coming out shortly.

Changes since version 2.4.10:

• Fixed a longstanding (but rare) crash that occurred when closing a window that contains image views.
• Fixed a bug where the name of proximity detectors was not exported correctly in .nirs files.
• Fixed a bug where macOS could warn of an expired certificate by updating our Developer ID code signing certificate.
• Updated support for newest iterations of our Vet Robot hardware, notably for the NHP 45 degree inclination setup.
• Fixed a bug where the date/time metadata from MINC1 files would sometimes not be shown.
• Improved error checking when communicating with a Magstim TMS stimulator.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.4.11 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download the latest “Support Files Human” and/or “Support Files Vet” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.4.10.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later is required. For a free update, visit <https://www.apple.com/macos/how-to-upgrade/>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), 11.6.4 (Big Sur), and 12.2.1 (Monterey)
• Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and 10.12 (Sierra) are now only lightly tested.
• Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier are unsupported.

Important Compatibility Note:

• If you are already using the Brainsight 2.5 beta, don’t install this version. A new 2.5 beta is coming out shortly.

Changes since version 2.4.9:

• Fixed a longstanding (but rare) crash that occurred when closing a window that contains image views.
• Fixed a crash that could occur when computing the distance from a point to a surface, which occurs in several places, like the Targets and Session windows.
• Fixed a bug where importing a dxf file resulted in the colours being read incorrectly.
• Updated support for newest iterations of our Vet Robot hardware, notably the 50 mm lens.
• Fixed a small inaccuracy in the visual positioning of an LCT (large coil tracker) object in 3D images. (This did not affect the actual measured position of the tracker.)
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.4.10 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download the latest “Support Files Human” and/or “Support Files Vet” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.4.9.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later is required. For a free update, visit <https://www.apple.com/macos/how-to-upgrade/>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), and 11.6 (Big Sur).
• Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and 10.12 (Sierra) are now only lightly tested.
• Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier are unsupported.

Important Compatibility Note:

• If you are already using the Brainsight 2.5 beta, don’t install this version. A new 2.5 beta is coming out shortly.

Changes since version 2.4.8:

• There is a new checkbox in the Session > IOBox step to indicate if you want to save or discard the live/full EMG waveform. It’s usually not necessary to save it, because samples contain a copy of the EMG waveform just before and after the TMS pulse, and as it can grow very large it slows performance, especially saving and opening project files.
• Resuming a session no longer overwrites any existing live/full EMG waveform, instead it now appends new data to the end.
• Fixed a bug where the EMG pod was sometimes not detected between closing and resuming sessions or when disconnecting and reconnecting its USB cable.
• Fixed a bug where exporting .nirs files would fail if the project did not contain any NIRS Aux data.
• When stopping an Axilum session, we now perform an extra movement to make sure the robot arm stays in the working space.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.4.9 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download the latest “Support Files Human” and/or “Support Files Vet” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.4.8.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later is required. For a free update, visit <https://www.apple.com/macos/how-to-upgrade/>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), and 11.4 (Big Sur).
• Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and 10.12 (Sierra) are now only lightly tested.
• Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier are unsupported.

Important Compatibility Note:

• If you are already using the Brainsight 2.5 beta, don’t install this version.

Changes since version 2.4.7:

• The Polaris Configuration window now has a new popup menu where you can choose which Polaris device to use. This is especially useful for network-based Polaris cameras, of which you may have several on your network.
• Fixed a bug where the application would sometimes become unresponsive when communicating with a Polaris Vega.
• The ‘extended pyramid’ volume shape supported by some Polaris Spectra and Vega cameras is now supported and will be used automatically if available.
• Fixed a bug where the NIRS Configuration window would indicate a firmware update was available when in fact no update was available.
• The Vet Robot stereo calibration procedure was improved to capture slightly more points.
• The ‘Mini TMS Coil’ 3D crosshairs shape now has a slightly longer shaft.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.4.8 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download “Support Files Human 1.5” and/or “Support Files Vet 1.3” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team

We are happy to announce the release of Brainsight 2.4.7.

Before proceeding with this update, please read the following important information.

Minimum requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later is required. For a free update, visit <https://www.apple.com/macos/how-to-upgrade/>. Contact us if you need to upgrade your Mac hardware.
• This version of Brainsight was tested against 10.13.6 (High Sierra), 10.14.6 (Mojave), 10.15.7 (Catalina), and 11.1 (Big Sur).
• Mac OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) and 10.12 (Sierra) are now only lightly tested.
• Mac OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) and earlier are unsupported.

Important Compatibility Note:

• If you are already using the Brainsight 2.5 beta, don’t install this version.

Changes since version 2.4.6:

• Added support for the new macOS 11 Big Sur, notably communication with Polaris cameras now works.
• Numerous changes to Axilum Robotics support:
  • A new feature in the Session Perform window now allows visiting a sequence of targets, pausing for a specified number of TMS pulses, with a specified duration between them, and then moving to the next target.
  • The “Align” buttons have changed behaviour in several notable ways: They now only act on the sole selected target. They no longer can be used for a folder of targets.
    • They now move in whatever path is necessary to ultimately reach the target and always descend the coil to contact the skin. (Previously, there were two behaviours: if the coil was already on the skin, they would only try to slide along the skin, and if the target was too far, no movement would result at all. If the coil was in orbit, they would align above the new target, but not descend to the skin.)
    • To signal this behaviour change, the buttons have been renamed from “Align” to “Move”.
    • The “Stop” button now moves the robot arm away from the subject’s head, if it was in contact.
  • Closing a session window now warns if you are connected to a robot, instead of just closing.
  • Added tooltips to most of the Axilum-related buttons, to help understand what they each do.
• Added a second kind of subject registration for Vet Robot sessions. Instead of using two landmarks and the laser grid, you can now use three or more landmarks for a classic rigid body registration. This requires being able to accurately locate such landmarks both on the anatomical scan and in the camera images.
• The Targets window now allows importing target names and coordinates from a text file.
• Fixed a bug where older documents sometimes failed to convert to the newest format with the message “crosshairs is a required value”.
• Fixed a bug where the “switch” input on the IOBox was triggering from high to low voltage instead of low to high voltage, resulting in presses of the foot switch being recognised upon releasing the pedal instead of upon depressing the pedal.
• Fixed a crash that could occur choosing some colours in the ROI window.
• Fixed a crash importing some SPM12 .mat files.
• Fixed a crash on macOS 10.14 and older that could occur if a TTL trigger was received while editing the peak-to-peak value in the Inspector > Motor Maps window.
• Fixed various bugs with macOS dark mode, where some things were drawn with incorrect or illegible colours.
• Fixed a bug where landmark/electrode names that contained two parts, like “LA43-LA44”, would only have the first half spoken.
• The Session Validation window now allows choosing the crosshairs shape, like most other steps in the Session window.
• Fixed an old bug where the first use of the Apple Remote after booting the Mac resulted in the first button press being reacted to twice.
• Fixed a bug where the Apple Remote up and down buttons did not work on macOS 10.13 and newer.
• Fixed a bug where the Apple Remote did not work at all on macOS 10.15 and newer.
• Fixed miscellaneous bugs.

Download:

• Brainsight 2.4.7 can be downloaded from our website here: <https://www.rogue-research.com/downloads>
• You might also need to download “Support Files Human 1.5” and/or “Support Files Vet 1.3” if you have an older version. Brainsight will warn at launch if that’s the case.
• You’ll need your serial number, which you can get from Brainsight itself from the Brainsight menu > ‘Enter/View Serial Number’.

Feedback:

• Please report any and all bugs, feedback, suggestions, etc. to <support@rogue-research.com> or by phone at +1-866-984-3888 (Canada & USA) or +1-514-284-3888.

Thank you,

The Rogue Research Team