Age-Dependent Analysis Techniques for Pediatric Structural and Diffusion MRI Data

项目概述（由申请人提供）：本项目旨在开发一种新颖的表示和计算工具，以便更好地了解人类大脑的发育。这些方法需求量很大，因为以前介绍的成人大脑分析技术要么不完整，要么不能直接转移到婴儿身上。考虑到生命最初两年神经解剖学的巨大变化，候选人建议将年龄明确纳入她的定量图像分析工具。她将定义并构建一个四维脑图谱，以总结正常婴儿的中心倾向和随时间的变化。该图谱将用于比较对照组和早产儿，并描述病理发展过程。候选人还将介绍计算工具，这些工具可以将来自这样一个地图集的信息整合到基于模板的分割和配准算法中。前者有助于在图像中分配解剖标签，后者依赖于先前积累的图像统计在新观测数据之间建立空间对应关系。由于髓鞘形成最快的时期发生在生命的头两年，关于白质的信息对于这项技术将是无价的。因此，候选人将严重依赖扩散加权MR图像来补充结构图像信息。在该奖项的指导阶段，将根据神经发育假说和来自婴儿数据集的多模态图像采集来构建发育中的大脑的年龄依赖性表征。在独立阶段，将引入专门设计用于处理婴儿数据的图像处理工具，新模型将用于描述和比较正常和中断的大脑发育。该项目符合候选人的长期职业目标，即通过多模式医学收购分析，建立一个有竞争力的、独立的人脑发育定量建模研究项目。该项目还将促进候选人在儿科神经科学和儿科磁共振成像方面的知识的短期目标。这项工作的指导阶段将在MGH/哈佛/麻省理工学院马蒂诺斯生物医学成像中心进行，候选人将利用尖端的成像设备，成像专业知识，以及在其合作机构的世界一流的教育机会。她的职业发展计划包括儿科神经解剖学、磁共振物理的培训；学习神经科学课程，参加研讨会和科学会议。

PROJECT SUMMARY (Provided by Applicant): This application aims to develop a novel representation and computational tools that enable a better understanding of human brain development. Such methods are in high demand as previously introduced techniques for adult brain analysis are either incomplete for such purposes or are not directly transferable to infants. Given the dramatic changes in neuroanatomy during the first two years of life, the candidate proposes to explicitly incorporate age into her quantitative image analysis tools. She will define and construct a four dimensional brain atlas that will summarize central tendencies and variations over time in normal infants. This atlas will then be used to compare groups of control and prematurely born subjects and describe pathological development processes. The candidate will also introduce computational tools that may incorporate information from such an atlas into a template-based segmentation and registration algorithm. The former assists in assigning anatomical labels in the images, and the latter relies on previously accumulated image statistics when establishing spatial correspondences among newly observed data. As the most rapid period of myelination occurs in the first two years of life, information about the white matter will be invaluable for this technique. The candidate will therefore rely heavily on diffusion weighted MR images to compliment structural image information. During the Mentored Phase of the award, an age-dependent representation of the developing brain will be constructed relying on neurodevelopmental hypothesis and multi-modal image acquisitions from infant data sets. In the Independent Phase, image processing tools will be introduced that are specifically designed to work with infant data, and the new model will be used to describe and compare normal and disrupted brain development. This project is consistent with the long-term career goal of the candidate, which is to establish a competitive and independent research program in quantitatively modeling human brain development by the analysis of multi-modal medical acquisitions. The project will also facilitate the candidate's short-term goal of becoming knowledgeable in pediatric neuroscience and pediatric MR imaging. The Mentored Phase of this work is to be performed at the MGH/Harvard/MIT Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, where the candidate will take advantage of the cutting-edge imaging facilities, imaging expertise, as well as the world-class educational opportunities at its collaborating institutions. Her career development plan includes training in pediatric neuroanatomy, the physics of MR; coursework in neuroscience, and participation in seminars and scientific conferences.