Cortical Reconstruction and Analysis Software

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的目标是开发用于在体积磁共振（MR）图像中查找和数学表示大脑皮层的自动化和用户友好的软件工具。 这些软件工具将公开和免费提供，并将在以下研究中使用：1）开发正常与患病皮质几何形状的描述，2）用于变形图谱配准的标志生成，3）结构/功能关系的统计分析，以及4）衰老和疾病中形态学变化的表征。 将形成所开发的软件工具的基础的算法源于我们自己对皮层重建和分析的研究工作。 我们提出五个具体目标：1）将核心体积处理算法结合到MIPAV中，MIPAV是NIH开发的商业质量但可免费获得的软件包; 2）实现专用的基于GUI的软件包，用于根据MR图像执行大脑皮层的完全重建; 3）在我们的专用软件包中实现基于表面的处理和分析工具，这将允许定义皮层上的感兴趣区域，皮层展开、表面编辑和脑沟标记; 4）执行软件包的两个阶段的测试，随后是一般的公开发布;以及5）实现软件的增强的脚本和基于客户端/服务器的版本，其将允许定制总体处理方法并将计算密集型算法卸载到联网的服务器。 这些目标将通过以下方式实现：1）使用MIPAV应用程序编程接口将现有的内部软件移植到Java编程语言中，2）开发用于可视化和验证的图形用户界面，以及3）根据测试人员的反馈进行改进。 所有开发软件的源代码将公开提供。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this proposal is to develop largely automated and user-friendly software tools for finding and mathematically representing the cerebral cortex in volumetric magnetic resonance (MR) images. These software tools will be made publicly and freely available and will be useful in studies involving 1) the development of a description of normal versus diseased cortical geometry, 2) landmark generation for deformable atlas registration, 3) statistical analyses of structure/function relationships, and 4) characterization of morphological changes in aging and disease. The algorithms that will form the basis for the developed software tools stem from our own research work on cortical reconstruction and analysis. We propose five specific aims: 1) incorporate the core volumetric processing algorithms into MIPAV, a commercial-quality but freely available software package developed at NIH; 2) implement a dedicated GUI- based software package for performing a full reconstruction of the cerebral cortex from MR images; 3) implement surface-based processing and analysis tools within our dedicated software package that will allow definition of regions of interest on the cortex, cortical unfolding, surface editing, and sulcal labeling; 4) perform two phases of testing of the software package followed by a general public release; and 5) implement enhanced scripting and client/server-based versions of the software that will allow customization of the overall processing methodology and offload computationally intensive algorithms to a networked server. These aims will be achieved by 1) porting existing in-house software into the Java programming language using the MIPAV application programming interface, 2) developing graphical user interfaces for visualization and validation, and 3) making refinements based on tester feedback. Source code to all developed software will be made publicly available.