Title
Multi-contrast human neonatal brain atlas: Application to normal neonate development analysis.
Abstract
MRI is a sensitive method for detecting subtle anatomic abnormalities in the neonatal brain. To optimize the usefulness for neonatal and pediatric care, systematic research, based on quantitative image analysis and functional correlation, is required. Normalization-based image analysis is one of the most effective methods for image quantification and statistical comparison. However, the application of this methodology to neonatal brain MRI scans is rare. Some of the difficulties are the rapid changes in T1 and T2 contrasts and the lack of contrast between brain structures, which prohibits accurate cross-subject image registration. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which provides rich and quantitative anatomical contrast in neonate brains, is an ideal technology for normalization-based neonatal brain analysis. In this paper, we report the development of neonatal brain atlases with detailed anatomic information derived from DTI and co-registered anatomical MRI. Combined with a diffeomorphic transformation, we were able to normalize neonatal brain images to the atlas space and three-dimensionally parcellate images into 122 regions. The accuracy of the normalization was comparable to the reliability of human raters. This method was then applied to babies of 37–53 post-conceptional weeks to characterize developmental changes of the white matter, which indicated a posterior-to-anterior and a central-to-peripheral direction of maturation. We expect that future applications of this atlas will include investigations of the effect of prenatal events and the effects of preterm birth or low birth weights, as well as clinical applications, such as determining imaging biomarkers for various neurological disorders.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.01.051
NeuroImage
Keywords
Field
DocType
Human,Neonate,Atlas,Magnetic resonance imaging,Diffusion tensor imaging
Normal neonate,Developmental psychology,Diffusion MRI,Brain atlas,Neuroscience,Normalization (statistics),White matter,Psychology,Image Quantification,Image registration,Magnetic resonance imaging
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
56
1
1053-8119
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
50
1.57
26
Authors
12
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Kenichi Oishi145623.56
Susumu Mori264543.22
Pamela K. Donohue31088.71
Thomas Ernst4501.57
Lynn Anderson5582.39
Steven Buchthal6672.91
Andreia Faria72139.18
Hangyi Jiang855031.16
Xin Li953021.45
Michael I Miller103123422.82
Peter van Zijl11109073.41
Linda Chang12501.57