Informatics Meta-Spaces for the Exploration of Human Neuroanatomy

描述（由申请人提供）：该申请涉及广泛的挑战领域（06）使能技术和特定的挑战主题，06- mh -103：神经科学研究的新技术。该项目将提供一个强大的，内容驱动的方法来识别具有相似几何和形状的大脑，神经解剖学上相似病例的聚类，以及神经成像档案中包含的大型集合的交互式3D可视化。从LONI图像数据存档（IDA）的示例开始，我们将设计自动化数据处理元工作流程，将数千个全脑MRI体积分解为组成的3D神经解剖区域。我们将描述这些区域分组的几何特性，存储这些测量结果，并系统地评估大脑之间成对的区域“距离”，并使用多维缩放和相关方法分解所得的相似性矩阵。这些过程将是自动化的，以适应档案的持续增长，并能够包括从其他神经影像学档案中获得的内容。我们将通过交互式和免费的3D浏览器以图形方式表示大脑相似性的派生空间。最后，我们将为用户开发方法，通过使用大型网格计算架构的相同过程上传自己的MR解剖体进行自动处理；将上传数据的分解与从先前处理的存档数据中导出的形状统计进行比较；基于内容的搜索结果将通过网络以具有相似神经解剖学特征的脑容量排序列表的形式返回给用户；超链接到额外的元数据和在线信息，以及使用交互式3D浏览器描述他们的数据相对于其他派生的大脑数据的位置。关于显示中每个对象的元数据将很容易获得，描述受试者人口统计，诊断组，扫描参数等。该项目并不提倡或支持任何新的中央神经影像数据库的开发，但将为神经科学社区提供前所未有的服务，与现有的数字大脑档案进行交互。这里开发的工具将能够容纳其他神经成像存储库以及用户的本地档案，因此具有超越单一数据资源的效用。我们希望这个项目的结果能像BLAST对基因组学社区一样，引起神经影像学社区的极大兴趣和兴奋。经过两年的开发，我们预计这些基于信息学的方法和工具交付成果将有助于研究人员作为他们神经科学事业的一部分，帮助指导研究方向，加强教育，并将提供有关健康和疾病的大规模神经成像库的重要新见解。这个新颖的信息学和动态可视化项目的结果预计将引起神经影像学社区的极大兴趣和兴奋。该项目将以类似BLAST为基因组学提供的方式为内容驱动的搜索提供支持，并将为健康和疾病的大规模神经成像库提供重要的新见解。在为期两年的开发期间，将创造许多新的美国就业机会，该项目将提供一个强大的，内容驱动的信息学方法，用于识别具有相似几何和形状的大脑，神经解剖学相似病例的聚类，以及神经成像档案中包含的大型集合的交互式3D可视化。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application addresses broad Challenge Area (06) Enabling Technologies and specific Challenge Topic, 06-MH-103: New Technologies for Neuroscience Research. This project will provide a powerful, content-driven approach to the identification of brains having similar geometry and shape, the clustering of neuroanatomically similar cases, and the interactive 3D visualization of the large collections contained in neuroimaging archives. Beginning with the example of the LONI Image Data Archive (IDA), we will design automated data processing meta-workflows that will decompose the thousands of whole brain MRI volumes into constituent 3D neuroanatomical regions. We will characterize the geometric properties of these regional parcellations, store these measurements, and systematically assess pair-wise regional "distances" between brains, and decompose the resulting similarity matrix using multidimensional scaling and related approaches. These processes will be automated to accommodate the continuous growth of the archive and be able to include content obtained from other neuroimaging archives as well. We will graphically represent the derived space of brain similarity via an interactive and freely available 3D browser. Finally, we will develop means for users to upload their own MR anatomical volumes for automated processing via this same process using a large grid computational architecture; decompositions of the uploaded data will be compared against the shape statistics derived from the previously processed archival data; content- based search results will be returned to users via the web in the form of a rank ordered list of brain volumes having similar neuroanatomical characteristics; hyperlinks to additional meta-data and online information, as well as a depiction of the position of their data with respect to other derived brain data using the interactive 3D browser. Meta-data concerning each object in the display will be easily available describing subject demographics, diagnostic group, scanning parameters, etc. This project does not seek to advocate or support the development of any new centralized neuroimaging database but will provide an unprecedented service to the neuroscience community for interacting with existing digital brain archives. The tools developed here will be capable of accommodating that of other neuroimaging repositories as well as user's local archives, thus having utility beyond a single data resource. We expect the outcomes of this project to draw considerable interest and excitement from the neuroimaging community in a similar manner to which BLAST has had for the genomics community. Following a two year development timeline, we anticipate that these informatics-based approaches and tool deliverables will be instrumental for researchers as part of their neuroscientific enterprise, helping to guide research directions, enhance education, and will provide significant new insights concerning large-scale neuroimaging repositories of health and disease. H The outcomes of this novel project for informatics and dynamic visualization to are expected to draw considerable interest and excitement from the neuroimaging community. This project will empower content-driven searches in a similar manner to BLAST has provided for genomics and will provide significant new insights concerning large-scale neuroimaging repositories of health and disease. Over a two-year period of development, during which a number of new American jobs will be created, this project will deliver a robust, content-driven informatics approach to the identification of brains having similar geometry and shape, the clustering of neuroanatomically similar cases, and the interactive 3D visualization of the large collections contained in neuroimaging archives.