The Turbulent Heart, Revealed in Four-Dimensions

Developed in collaboration with the Biomedical Simulation Lab Coppin, P. W., Chnafa, C., Julian, M., & Steinman, D. (2016). The Turbulent Heart, revealed in four-dimensions. In H. Leder, M. Forster, G. Gerger, M. Nadal, M. Pelowski, & R. Rosenberg (Eds.), Proceedings of the XXIV. Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics (p. 16). Vienna, Austria: University of Vienna. ABSTRACT: The dynamics of blood flow in the heart can provide important clues to its health. Starting from 3D imaging of a patient’s beating heart, detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the blood flow were performed, vortical structures were algorithmically tracked, and data-driven visualizations were algorithmically rendered. Unretouched visualizations from this process revealed, for the first time, the presence of turbulent flow structures in the left atrium and ventricle, the persistence of which in both time and space tells us much about the cardiac energetics. New visualization approaches were required: Inspired by futurist art movements, we “froze” these complex four-dimensional (3D + time) flow structures into a single image, showing, from left to right, the formation and then dissipation of vortex rings in the left atrium (blue) and left ventricle (red) as the heart relaxes. Design choices were informed by perceptual theories that are synergistic with appraisal and interest (A&T) theories of empirical aesthetics: An organism’s perceptual system is induced when it picks up stimuli produced by environmental change and variation; our algorithm reduced unchanging and unvarying details to emphasize (or “caricature”) changing elements. Similarly, A&T predicts that audiences engage in a “novelty check” for what is new-unfamiliar prior to the “appraisal of coping potential” phase that examines if they can understand the event; To aid understandability of vortex ring formation and dissipation, a number of frames were chosen to provide sufficient continuity between frames while minimizing overlap.