Multi-contrast multi-scale surface registration for improved alignment of cortical areas

Abstract

The position of cortical areas can be approximately predicted from cortical surface folding patterns. However, there is extensive inter-subject variability in cortical folding patterns, prohibiting a one-to-one mapping of cortical folds in certain areas. In addition, the relationship between cortical area boundaries and the shape of the cortex is variable, and weaker for higher-order cortical areas. Current surface registration techniques align cortical folding patterns using sulcal landmarks or cortical curvature, for instance. The alignment of cortical areas by these techniques is thus inherently limited by the sole use of geometric similarity metrics. Magnetic resonance imaging T1 maps show intra-cortical contrast that reflects myelin content, and thus can be used to improve the alignment of cortical areas. In this article, we present a new symmetric diffeomorphic multi-contrast multi-scale surface registration (MMSR) technique that works with partially inflated surfaces in the level-set framework. MMSR generates a more precise alignment of cortical surface curvature in comparison to two widely recognized surface registration algorithms. The resulting overlap in gyrus labels is comparable to FreeSurfer. Most importantly, MMSR improves the alignment of cortical areas further by including T1 maps. As a first application, we present a group average T1 map at a uniquely high-resolution and multiple cortical depths, which reflects the myeloarchitecture of the cortex. MMSR can also be applied to other MR contrasts, such as functional and connectivity data.

Large-Scale Gradients in Human Cortical Organization

“…For example, MRI measures that are sensitive to intracortical myelin have revealed a pattern of high myelin content in primary sensorimotor regions, which systematically decreases toward transmodal areas in parietal, temporal, and particularly prefrontal cortex [3,[25][26][27][28] (Figure 1A). A similar spatial distribution has been described for MRI-based measures of cortical thickness [12] and myelinated thickness [29].…”

In-vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of laminae in the human cortex

“…Using area-specific models, estimating cyto-architecture in addition to myelo-architecture may be feasible . The potential advantage of individual parcellation of the cortex over standardized atlases is the more accurate definition of brain areas (Lutti et al, 2014;Tardif et al, 2015;Waehnert et al, 2016). The approach can also help to indirectly determine specific functional areas, making lengthy and complicated functional localizer scans unnecessary, e.g., retinotopic mapping of V1 being complemented or replaced by mapping the striate cortex S anchez-Panchuelo et al, 2012;Sereno et al, 2013).…”

“…The contrast between cortical areas varies with cortical depth, and reflects myeloarchitectonic descriptions of the cortex. Taken from Tardif et al (2015) with permission from the publishers, Copyright Elsevier (2015). meshes, but the high level of curvature in the cerebral cortex makes this approach unrealistic beyond single profiles at individual locations.…”

A subject-specific framework for in vivo myeloarchitectonic analysis using high resolution quantitative MRI

“…The spatial patterns in T 1 have also been shown to vary with cortical depth (Lutti et al, 2014;Tardif et al, 2015), reflecting the differences in laminar structure between cortical areas. Other MR contrasts reveal similar, yet distinct, spatial patterns, including T 1 -weighted images , T * 2 maps (Cohen-Adad et al, 2012), the ratio between T 1 -weighted and T 2 -weighted images (Glasser and Van Essen, 2011), and the ratio between T 1 -weighted and T * 2 -weighted images (De Martino et al, 2014).…”