The purpose of this paper is to survey some recent developments in the application of parallel and high performance computation in simulating the diffusion process in the human brain and in modeling the deformation of the human brain. Computational neuroscience is a branch of biomedical science and engineering in which sophisticated high performance computing techniques can make a huge difference in extracting brain anatomical information non-invasively and in assisting minimal invasive neurosurgical interventions. This paper will demonstrate that there are lots of potential opportunities for computational scientists to work with biomedical scientists to develop high performance computing tools for biomedical applications.

Mathematics Subject Classification:

This research was supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation under the grant CCR-9988165, CCR-0092532, and ACR-0202934, in part by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science under grant DE-FG02-02ER45961, and in part by the University of Kentucky Research Committee.