Templates and Tools for Pediatric Neuroanatomical Analysis

本计画旨在建构一套标准的小儿神经影像解剖模板。它旨在利用NIH资助的正常大脑发育MRI研究，特别是DTI（扩散张量成像）辅助研究。总体目标是通过分组配准过程形成一组年龄组特定模板或图谱空间，该过程将使每组中的所有受试者达到空间一致并创建受试者图像的统计摘要。标准模板的可用性促进了许多神经科学项目，例如，组间形态学差异的量化和结构的自动标记。模板或图谱空间形成中的大多数先前工作使用常规MRI图像，其对于大脑的整体白色物质/灰质形态具有良好的对比度。最近的DTI图像提供了白色物质结构的细节，这些结构在常规MRI中是不可见的。我们特别计划使用辅助研究的DTI图像，以便模板中的白色物质结构与不使用DTI图像的情况更好地一致。具体目标包括技术开发、模板形成和传播所产生的模板和软件。 技术开发工作包括： ·扩展我们先前开发的组配准方法，以使用DTI图像和MRI图像。 ·扩展组配准方法的变形建模能力。我们期望这些模板和配套软件工具能够促进儿科神经影像分析，尤其是关注白色物质结构的应用项目。

This project aims to construct a set of standard anatomical templates for pediatric neuroimage analysis. It is designed to leverage the NIH funded MRI Study of Normal Brain Development, specifically the DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging) ancillary study. The overall goal is to form a set of age-group specific templates, or atlas spaces, by a process of group wise registration that will bring all of the subjects in each group into spatial agreement and create a statistical summary of the subject images. Many neuroscience projects are facilitated by the availability of standard templates, e.g., quantification of morphological differences between groups and automated labeling of structure. Most previous work in template, or atlas space, formation has used conventional MRI images, which have good contrast for the overall white matter / gray matter morphology of the brain. The more recent DTI images provide details of the white matter structure that are otherwise not visible in conventional MRI. We specifically plan to make use of the DTI images of the ancillary study in such a way that the white matter structures are brought into better agreement in the templates than would be the case if DTI images were not used. The specific aims include technology development, template formation, and dissemination of the resulting templates and software. The technology development effort includes the following: • Extend a group registration method that we have previously developed to use DTI images in addition to MRI images • Extend the deformation modeling capabilities of the group registration method. It is our expectation that the templates and companion software tools will facilitate pediatric neuroimage analysis in general, and particularly application projects that focus on white matter structure.