title: Voxel-based cortical thickness measurements in MRI.
abstract: The thickness of the cerebral cortex can provide valuable information about normal and abnormal neuroanatomy. High resolution MRI together with powerful image processing techniques has made it possible to perform these measurements automatically over the whole brain. Here we present a method for automatically generating voxel-based cortical thickness (VBCT) maps. This technique results in maps where each voxel in the grey matter is assigned a thickness value. Sub-voxel measurements of thickness are possible using sub-sampling and interpolation of the image information. The method is applied to repeated MRI scans of a single subject from two MRI scanners to demonstrate its robustness and reproducibility. A simulated data set is used to show that small focal differences in thickness between two groups of subjects can be detected. We propose that the analysis of VBCT maps can provide results that are complementary to other anatomical analyses such as voxel-based morphometry.
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, UCL, London, UK. chutton@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Chloe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hutton
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: De Vita
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ashburner
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Deichmann
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Turner
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D011336:Probability