title: A method for the automatic segmentation of autoradiographic image stacks and spatial normalization of functional cortical activity patterns.
abstract: This paper introduces two new methods for the automatic anatomical and functional analysis of neurobiological autoradiographic image stacks, such as 2-fluoro-deoxyglucose (2FDG) images. The difficulty in the evaluation of these "2(1/2)D" datasets is that they do not inherently represent a continuous 3D data volume (as generated by MRI or CT), but consist of a stack of images from single tissue slices, suffering from unavoidable preparation artifacts. In the first part of the paper, a semi-automatic segmentation method is presented which generates a 3D surface model of certain brain structures and which is robust against different cutting directions with respect to the brain coordinate system. The method saves man-hours compared to manual segmentation and the results are highly reproducible. In the second part, a fully automatic method for the extraction, analysis and 3D visualization of functional information is described, which allows not only a more accurate localization of activation sites, but also greatly enhances the comparability of different individuals. Results are shown for 2FDG autoradiographs from rat brains under acoustical stimulation.
authors.affiliation: Neural Information Processing Group, Fakultät IV, Berlin University of Technology, FR 2-1, Franklinstrasse 28/29, D-10587 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mohr
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hess
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scholz
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Obermayer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001345:Autoradiography / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000737:chemistry*; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18 / Q000032:analysis; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18