Templates and Tools for Pediatric Neuroanatomical Analysis

本项目旨在构建一套用于儿科神经影像分析的标准解剖模板。它的设计是为了利用NIH资助的正常大脑发育的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登记过程形成一套特定年龄组的模板或地图集空间，这将使每一组中的所有受试者在空间上达成一致，并创建受试者图像的统计摘要。许多神经科学项目都得益于标准模板的提供，例如，量化不同组之间的形态差异和自动标记结构。大多数以前的模板或图谱空间的形成工作都使用了传统的MRI图像，这些图像对大脑的整体白质/灰质形态具有良好的对比度。较新的DTI图像提供了在常规MRI中看不到的白质结构的细节。我们特别计划利用辅助研究的DTI图像，使模板中的白质结构比不使用DTI图像时更符合。具体目标包括技术开发、模板形成以及作为结果的模板和软件的传播。 技术开发工作包括以下内容： ·扩展我们之前开发的组配准方法，以便除MRI图像外还使用DTI图像 ·扩展组注册方法的变形建模能力。我们期望模板和配套的软件工具将有助于儿科神经影像分析，特别是侧重于脑白质结构的应用项目。

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.