Biological parametric mapping: A statistical toolbox for multimodality brain image analysis

Abstract

In recent years multiple brain MR imaging modalities have emerged; however, analysis methodologies have mainly remained modality specific. In addition, when comparing across imaging modalities, most researchers have been forced to rely on simple region-of-interest type analyses, which do not allow the voxel-by-voxel comparisons necessary to answer more sophisticated neuroscience questions. To overcome these limitations, we developed a toolbox for multimodal image analysis called biological parametric mapping (BPM), based on a voxel-wise use of the general linear model. The BPM toolbox incorporates information obtained from other modalities as regressors in a voxel-wise analysis, thereby permitting investigation of more sophisticated hypotheses. The BPM toolbox has been developed in MATLAB with a user friendly interface for performing analyses, including voxel-wise multimodal correlation, ANCOVA, and multiple regression. It has a high degree of integration with the SPM (statistical parametric mapping) software relying on it for visualization and statistical inference. Furthermore, statistical inference for a correlation field, rather than a widely-used T-field, has been implemented in the correlation analysis for more accurate results. An example with in-vivo data is presented demonstrating the potential of the BPM methodology as a tool for multimodal image analysis.

Integrating VBM into the General Linear Model with voxelwise anatomical covariates

“…Another application would be to use MRI perfusion to see how baseline metabolism is associated with subsequent fMRI activation results, a question that might be of paramount importance in clinical studies of groups expected to show underlying baseline differences. Recent work by Casanova et al [2006] facilitates the interchange of anatomical and functional image data between the primary and secondary data source using voxelwise covariates, encouraging the inspection of data from several viewpoints. Furthermore, the approach is not limited to using a single covariate.…”

Functional Networks in Temporal-Lobe Epilepsy: A Voxel-Wise Study of Resting-State Functional Connectivity and Gray-Matter Concentration

“…Biological parametric mapping (BPM) is a software package for multimodal image analysis based on a voxel-wise use of the general linear model (Casanova et al, 2007). The software package robust BPM (rBPM) is an extension of the BPM software tolerant to outliers (Yang et al, 2011) and was used to provide confirmation of the BPM results.…”

Cerebral serotonin transporter binding is inversely related to body mass index

“…DASB images were smoothed with a12-mm Gaussian kernel prior to analysis. In order to control for structural differences and mis-registration across subject, we included GM segmentations in the analysis using the Biological Parametric Mapping software package (Casanova et al, 2007). Gray matter (GM) segmentations were smoothed with 8 mm Gaussian filter to approximate the smoothness of the DASB images.…”