[QUESTION/FEATURE REQUEST]: Incorporate electrode and brain tissues within FEM mesh

[tmedani]

Dear leadDBS team,

First: thank you for Lead-DBS and all the work that goes into it 🙏.
I’m working on field simulations where I need a conforming FEM mesh that includes the DBS/sEEG electrode (multi-material: core, insulation, contacts) embedded within brain tissue. I’d like to know the recommended way to do this with Lead-DBS, and/or propose a small feature/function to make it straightforward.

What I’ve explored

• Looked through electrodetemplate and several ea_genvol_* functions (e.g., ea_genvol_dixi, etc.).
• I can generate a tetrahedral mesh of the electrode alone (with separate regions per tissue), and I can also make a brain/background mesh.
• What I’m missing is a single conforming tet mesh where the electrode volumes are imprinted inside the brain volume with region labels preserved (e.g., brain=1, insulation=10, core=20, ring contacts=30/…).

Does Lead-DBS already include a function or pipeline to embed a multi-material electrode mesh into a brain/background mesh and export a single conforming FEM?

Thanks for your work and for your support.

Best,
Takfarinas

[andreashorn]

Hi yes this is happening in both the SimBio/FieldTrip and also the OSS-DBS pipelines when creating VTAs / E-Fields in Lead-DBS. Maybe run the lead tutor dataset and check out how this works in "normal" DBS cases.

[tmedani]

Hi @andreashorn ,

Thanks a lot for clarifying this 🙏, and it's great to hear that this is possible.
Could you kindly point me to the specific tutorial section or dataset link you mentioned so I can reproduce and understand how this works?

Also, if possible, could you point me to the specific function/section of the Lead-DBS code that handles the embedding of the electrode volumes into the brain mesh?

Thanks again for your guidance!
Best,
Takfarinas