Exploring cortical folding pattern variability using local image features

Exploring cortical folding pattern variability using local image features

Rajalingham, Rishi and Toews, Matthew and Collins, D. Louis and Arbel, Tal

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics) 2011

Abstract : The variability in cortical morphology across subjects makes it difficult to develop a general atlas of cortical sulci. In this paper, we present a data-driven technique for automatically learning cortical folding patterns from MR brain images. A local image feature-based model is learned using machine learning techniques, to describe brain images as a collection of independent, co-occurring, distinct, localized image features which may not be present in all subjects. The choice of feature type (SIFT, KLT, Harris-affine) is explored with regards to identifying cortical folding patterns while also uncovering their group-related variability across subjects. The model is built on lateral volume renderings from the ICBM dataset, and applied to hemisphere classification in order to identify patterns of lateralization based on each feature type. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.