title: On the construction of an inter-subject diffusion tensor magnetic resonance atlas of the healthy human brain.
abstract: Voxel based morphometry (VBM) has been increasingly applied to detect diffusion tensor (DT) image abnormalities in patients for different pathologies. An important requisite for a robust VBM analysis is the availability of a high-dimensional non-rigid coregistration technique that is able to align both the spatial and the orientational DT information. Consequently, there is a need for an inter-subject DTI atlas as a group specific reference frame that also contains this orientational DT information. In this work, a population based DTI atlas has been developed that incorporates such orientational DT information with high accuracy and precision. The proposed methodology for constructing such an atlas is compared with a subject based DTI atlas, in which a single subject is selected as the reference image. Our results demonstrate that the population based atlas framework is more accurate with respect to the underlying diffusion information.
authors.affiliation: Visionlab (Department of Physics), University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. Wim.Vanhecke@ua.ac.be
authors.forename: Wim
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Van Hecke
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sijbers
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: D'Agostino
authors.forename: Frederik
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maes
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Backer
authors.forename: Evert
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Vandervliet
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Parizel
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leemans
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D008959:Models, Neurological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D055815:Young Adult