Construction of a consistent high-definition spatio-temporal atlas of the developing brain using adaptive kernel regression

TY - JOUR

T1 - Construction of a consistent high-definition spatio-temporal atlas of the developing brain using adaptive kernel regression

AU - Serag, Ahmed

AU - Aljabar, Paul

AU - Ball, Gareth

AU - Counsell, Serena J

AU - Boardman, James P

AU - Rutherford, Mary A

AU - Edwards, A David

AU - Hajnal, Joseph V

AU - Rueckert, Daniel

N1 - Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

PY - 2012/2/1

Y1 - 2012/2/1

N2 - Medical imaging has shown that, during early development, the brain undergoes more changes in size, shape and appearance than at any other time in life. A better understanding of brain development requires a spatio-temporal atlas that characterizes the dynamic changes during this period. In this paper we present an approach for constructing a 4D atlas of the developing brain, between 28 and 44 weeks post-menstrual age at time of scan, using T1 and T2 weighted MR images from 204 premature neonates. The method used for the creation of the average 4D atlas utilizes non-rigid registration between all pairs of images to eliminate bias in the atlas toward any of the original images. In addition, kernel regression is used to produce age-dependent anatomical templates. A novelty in our approach is the use of a time-varying kernel width, to overcome the variations in the distribution of subjects at different ages. This leads to an atlas that retains a consistent level of detail at every time-point. Comparisons between the resulting atlas and atlases constructed using affine and non-rigid registration are presented. The resulting 4D atlas has greater anatomic definition than currently available 4D atlases created using various affine and non-rigid registration approaches, an important factor in improving registrations between the atlas and individual subjects. Also, the resulting 4D atlas can serve as a good representative of the population of interest as it reflects both global and local changes. The atlas is publicly available at www.brain-development.org.

AB - Medical imaging has shown that, during early development, the brain undergoes more changes in size, shape and appearance than at any other time in life. A better understanding of brain development requires a spatio-temporal atlas that characterizes the dynamic changes during this period. In this paper we present an approach for constructing a 4D atlas of the developing brain, between 28 and 44 weeks post-menstrual age at time of scan, using T1 and T2 weighted MR images from 204 premature neonates. The method used for the creation of the average 4D atlas utilizes non-rigid registration between all pairs of images to eliminate bias in the atlas toward any of the original images. In addition, kernel regression is used to produce age-dependent anatomical templates. A novelty in our approach is the use of a time-varying kernel width, to overcome the variations in the distribution of subjects at different ages. This leads to an atlas that retains a consistent level of detail at every time-point. Comparisons between the resulting atlas and atlases constructed using affine and non-rigid registration are presented. The resulting 4D atlas has greater anatomic definition than currently available 4D atlases created using various affine and non-rigid registration approaches, an important factor in improving registrations between the atlas and individual subjects. Also, the resulting 4D atlas can serve as a good representative of the population of interest as it reflects both global and local changes. The atlas is publicly available at www.brain-development.org.

U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.09.062

DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.09.062

M3 - Article

C2 - 21985910

SN - 1095-9572

VL - 59

SP - 2255

EP - 2265

JO - NeuroImage

JF - NeuroImage

IS - 3

ER -