ABSTRACT
Normative aging trends of the brain can serve as an important reference in the assessment of neurological structural disorders. Such models are typically developed from longitudinal brain image data-follow-up data of the same subject over different time points. In practice, obtaining such longitudinal data is difficult. We propose a method to develop an aging model for a given population, in the absence of longitudinal data, by using images from different subjects at different time points, the so-called cross-sectional data. We define an aging model as a diffeomorphic deformation on a structural template derived from the data and propose a method that develops topology preserving aging model close to natural aging. The proposed model is successfully validated on two public cross-sectional datasets which provide templates constructed from different sets of subjects at different age points.
Subject(s)
Aging , Brain , Adult , Algorithms , Brain/diagnostic imaging , Cross-Sectional Studies , Humans , Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods , Research DesignABSTRACT
CONTEXT: A brain magnetic resonanace imaging (MRI) atlas plays an important role in many neuroimage analysis tasks as it provides an atlas with a standard coordinate system which is needed for spatial normalization of a brain MRI. Ideally, this atlas should be as near to the average brain of the population being studied as possible. AIMS: The aim of this study is to construct and validate the Indian brain MRI atlas of young Indian population and the corresponding structure probability maps. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This was a population-specific atlas generation and validation process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 100 young healthy adults (M/F = 50/50), aged 21-30 years, were recruited for the study. Three different 1.5-T scanners were used for image acquisition. The atlas and structure maps were created using nonrigid groupwise registration and label-transfer techniques. COMPARISON AND VALIDATION: The generated atlas was compared against other atlases to study the population-specific trends. RESULTS: The atlas-based comparison indicated a signifi cant difference between the global size of Indian and Caucasian brains. This difference was noteworthy for all three global measures, namely, length, width, and height. Such a comparison with the Chinese and Korean brain templates indicate all 3 to be comparable in length but signifi cantly different (smaller) in terms of height and width. CONCLUSIONS: The findings confirm that there is significant difference in brain morphology between Indian, Chinese, and Caucasian populations.