Special Article
New Approaches in Brain Morphometry

https://doi.org/10.1097/00019442-200201000-00003Get rights and content

The complexity and variability of the human brain across subjects is so great that reliance on maps and atlases is essential to effectively manipulate, analyze, and interpret brain data. Central to these tasks is the construction of averages, templates, and models to describe how the brain and its component parts are organized. Design of appropriate reference systems for human brain data presents considerable challenges because these systems must capture how brain structure and function vary in large populations, across age and gender, in different disease states, across imaging modalities, and even across species. The authors introduce the topic of brain maps as applied to a variety of questions and problems in health and disease and include a brief survey of the types of maps relevant to mental disorders, including maps that capture dynamic patterns of brain change in dementia.

Section snippets

Brain Atlases

To address these difficulties, brain atlases3, 15, 16, 17 provide a structural framework in which individual brain maps can be integrated. Most brain atlases are based on a detailed representation of a single subject's anatomy in a standardized 3-D coordinate system, or stereotaxic space. The chosen dataset acts as a template on which other brain maps (such as functional images) can be overlaid. The anatomic data provide the additional detail necessary to accurately localize activation sites,

References (94)

  • F Bookstein

    Voxel-based morphometry should not be used with imperfectly registered images

    Neuroimage

    (2001)
  • G Subsol et al.

    Automatic analysis of cerebral atrophy

    Magn Reson Imaging

    (1997)
  • NC Fox et al.

    Visualization and quantification of rates of cerebral atrophy in Alzheimer's disease

    Lancet

    (1996)
  • R Bajcsy et al.

    Multiresolution elastic matching

    Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing

    (1989)
  • J Talairach et al.

    Atlas d'Anatomie Stereotaxique du Telencephale: Etudes Anatomo-Radiologiques

    (1967)
  • J Talairach et al.

    Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain

    (1988)
  • M Ono et al.

    Atlas of the Cerebral Sulci

    (1990)
  • HM Duvernoy

    The Human Brain

    (1991)
  • Brodmann K: Vergleichende Lokalisationslehre der Grosshirnrinde in Ihren Prinzipien Dargestellt auf Grund des...
  • GE Smith

    A new topographical survey of the human cerebral cortex, being an account of the distribution of the anatomically distinct cortical areas and their relationship to the cerebral sulci

    J Anat

    (1907)
  • J Mai et al.

    Atlas of the Human Brain

    (1997)
  • S Minoshima et al.

    Stereotactic PET atlas of the human brain: aid for visual interpretation of functional brain images

    J Nucl Med

    (1994)
  • D Le Bihan

    Functional MRI of the brain: principles, applications, and limitations

    Neuroradiol

    (1996)
  • M Avoli et al.

    Electrophysiological analysis of human neocortex in vitro: experimental techniques and methodological approaches

    Can J Neurol Sci

    (1991)
  • LW Swanson

    Brain Maps: Structure of the Rat Brain

    (1992)
  • R Kikinis et al.

    A digital brain atlas for surgical planning, model-driven segmentation, and teaching

    IEEE Transcripts on Visualization and Computer Graphics

    (1996)
  • JG Csernansky et al.

    Hippocampal morphometry in schizophrenia by high-dimensional brain mapping

    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

    (1998)
  • JG Csernansky et al.

    Early dementia of the Alzheimer type is distinguished from aging by high-dimensional mapping of the hippocampus

    Neurology

    (2000)
  • Thompson PM, Mega MS, Vidal C, et al: Detecting disease-specific patterns of brain structure using cortical pattern...
  • TD Cannon et al.

    Cortex mapping reveals heteromodal gray-matter deficits in monozygotic twins discordant for schizophrenia

    NeuroImage

    (2001)
  • PM Thompson et al.

    Genetic influences on brain structure

    Nature Neuroscience

    (2001)
  • PM Thompson et al.

    Mathematical/computational challenges in creating population-based brain atlases (invited paper)

    Hum Brain Mapp

    (2000)
  • JC Mazziotta et al.

    A probabilistic atlas and reference system for the human brain

    Phil Trans Royal Soc London B

    (2001)
  • C Bohm et al.

    Adjustable computerized brain atlas for transmission and emission tomography

    Am J Neuroradiol

    (1983)
  • MI Miller et al.

    Mathematical textbook of deformable neuroanatomies

    Proc Nat Acad Sci U S A

    (1993)
  • DL Collins et al.

    Automatic 3-D model-based neuroanatomical segmentation

    Human Brain Mapping

    (1995)
  • G Rizzo et al.

    An elastic computerized brain atlas for the analysis of clinical PET/SPET data

    Eur J Nucl Med

    (1995)
  • PT Fox et al.

    A stereotactic method of localization for positron emission tomography

    J Comp Assist Tomogr

    (1985)
  • PT Fox et al.

    Enhanced detection of focal brain responses using inter-subject averaging and change distribution analysis of subtracted PET images

    J Cereb Blood Flow Metab

    (1988)
  • KJ Friston et al.

    Localization in PET images: direct fitting of the intercommissural (AC-PC) line

    J Cereb Blood Flow Metab

    (1989)
  • KJ Friston et al.

    Plastic transformation of PET images

    J Comp Assist Tomogr

    (1991)
  • Evans AC, Collins DL, Milner B: An MRI-based stereotactic brain atlas from 300 young normal subjects, in Proceedings of...
  • AC Evans et al.

    Three-dimensional correlative imaging: applications in human brain mapping

  • KJ Friston et al.

    Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: a general linear approach

    Human Brain Mapping

    (1995)
  • DL Collins et al.

    An automated 3-D nonlinear image-deformation procedure for determination of gross morphometric variability in the human brain

    Proceedings in Visualization in Biomedical Computation (SPIE)

    (1994)
  • RP Woods et al.

    Rapid automated algorithm for aligning and reslicing PET images

    J Comput Assist Tomogr

    (1992)
  • Cited by (0)

    This work was generously supported by research grants from the National Library of Medicine (LM/MH05639), National Center for Research Resources (RR13642), and by a Human Brain Project grant known as the International Consortium for Brain Mapping, which is funded jointly by NIMH and NIDA (P20 MH/DA52176).

    View full text