Open AccessSpatio‐angular consistent construction of neonatal diffusion MRI atlases
Author(s) -
Saghafi Behrouz,
Kim Jaeil,
Chen Geng,
Shi Feng,
Lin Weili,
Yap PewThian,
Shen Dinggang
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.23583
Subject(s) - atlas (anatomy) , spatial normalization , diffusion mri , computer science , artificial intelligence , diffusion imaging , brain atlas , normalization (sociology) , pattern recognition (psychology) , computer vision , geology , voxel , magnetic resonance imaging , medicine , radiology , paleontology , sociology , anthropology
Atlases constructed using diffusion‐weighted imaging are important tools for studying human brain development. Atlas construction is in general a two‐step process involving spatial registration and fusion of individual images. The focus of most studies so far has been on improving the accuracy of registration while image fusion is commonly performed using simple averaging, often resulting in fuzzy atlases. In this article, we propose a patch‐based method for diffusion‐weighted (DW) atlas construction. Unlike other atlases that are based on the diffusion tensor model, our atlas is model‐free and generated directly from the diffusion‐weighted images. Instead of independently generating an atlas for each gradient direction and hence neglecting angular image correlation, we propose to construct the atlas by jointly considering DW images of neighboring gradient directions. We employ a group regularization framework where local patches of angularly neighboring images are constrained for consistent spatio‐angular atlas reconstruction. Experimental results confirm that our atlas, constructed for neonatal data, reveals more structural details with higher fractional anisotropy than the atlas generated without angular consistency as well as the average atlas. Also the normalization of test subjects to the proposed atlas results in better alignment of brain structures. Hum Brain Mapp 38:3175–3189, 2017 . © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.