title: Joint segmentation of thalamic nuclei from a population of diffusion tensor MR images.
abstract: Several recent studies explored the use of unsupervised segmentation methods for segmenting thalamic nuclei from diffusion tensor images. These methods provide a plausible segmentation on individual subjects; however, they do not address the problem of consistently identifying the same functional areas in a population. The lack of correspondence between the segmented nuclei make it more difficult to use the results from the unsupervised segmentation tools for morphometry. In this paper we present a novel segmentation algorithm to automatically segment the gray matter nuclei while ensuring consistency between subjects in a population. This new algorithm, referred to as Consistency Clustering, finds correspondence between the nuclei as the segmentation is achieved through a single model for the whole population, similar to the brain atlases experts use to identify thalamic nuclei.
authors.affiliation: MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Cambridge MA, USA.
authors.forename: Ulas
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ziyan
authors.forename: Carl-Fredrik
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Westin
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000033:anatomy & histology*