title: A statistical model of white matter fiber bundles based on currents.
abstract: The purpose of this paper is to measure the variability of a population of white matter fiber bundles without imposing unrealistic geometrical priors. In this respect, modeling fiber bundles as currents seems particularly relevant, as it gives a metric between bundles which relies neither on point nor on fiber correspondences and which is robust to fiber interruption. First, this metric is included in a diffeomorphic registration scheme which consistently aligns sets of fiber bundles. In particular, we show that aligning directly fiber bundles may solve the aperture problem which appears when fiber mappings are constrained by tensors only. Second, the measure of variability of a population of fiber bundles is based on a statistical model which considers every bundle as a random diffeomorphic deformation of a common template plus a random non-diffeomorphic perturbation. Thus, the variability is decomposed into a geometrical part and a "texture" part. Our results on real data show that both parts may contain interesting anatomical features.
authors.affiliation: Asclepios Team-Project, INRIA - Sophia Antipolis-Méditerranée, France.
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Durrleman
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fillard
authors.forename: Xavier
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Pennec
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trouvé
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ayache
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003198:Computer Simulation; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity