Multiple Brain Atlas Database and Atlas-Based Neuroimaging System

Abstract

For the purpose of developing multiple, complementary, fully labeled electronic brain atlases and an atlas-based neuroimaging system for analysis, quantification, and real-time manipulation of cerebral structures in two and three dimensions, we have digitized, enhanced, segmented, and labeled the following print brain atlases: Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain by Talairach and Tournoux, Atlas for Stereotaxy of the Human Brain by Schaltenbrand and Wahren, Referentially Oriented Cerebral MRI Anatomy by Talairach and Tournoux, and Atlas of the Cerebral Sulci by Ono, Kubik, and Abernathey. Three-dimensional extensions of these atlases have been developed as well. All two- and three-dimensional atlases are mutually preregistered and may be interactively registered with an actual patient's data. An atlas-based neuroimaging system has been developed that provides support for reformatting, registration, visualization, navigation, image processing, and quantification of clinical data. The anatomical index contains about 1,000 structures and over 400 sulcal patterns. Several new applications of the brain atlas database also have been developed, supported by various technologies such as virtual reality, the Internet, and electronic publishing. Fusion of information from multiple atlases assists the user in comprehensively understanding brain structures and identifying and quantifying anatomical regions in clinical data. The multiple brain atlas database and atlas-based neuroimaging system have substantial potential impact in stereotactic neurosurgery and radiotherapy by assisting in visualization and real-time manipulation in three dimensions of anatomical structures, in quantitative neuroradiology by allowing interactive analysis of clinical data, in three-dimensional neuroeducation, and in brain function studies.

From chalkboard, slides, and paper to e‐learning: How computing technologies have transformed anatomical sciences education

“…The Human Brain Project was another large-scale U.S. federally funded structural database initiative directed at integrated neuroanatomical imaging and brain-mapping, and along with a number of other institutions, the University of Washington Digital Anatomist Project also participated in its various objective programs (Toga and Thompson, 2001;Brinkley and Rosse, 2002). Early products included interactive brain atlases (Brinkley and Rosse, 2002), and later work by Nowinski and colleagues (Nowinski, 2008;Nowinski et al, 1997Nowinski et al, , 2009Nowinski et al, , 2012aNowinski et al, , 2012bNowinski and Chua 2013;Nowinski et al, 2015) greatly advanced the objectives of functionally integrating imaging-based stereotaxic-precision atlases into clinically useful tools for neuroradiology and neurosurgery.…”

A Brief History of Stereotactic Atlases: Their Evolution and Importance in Stereotactic Neurosurgery

“…(3) 3D extension of the existing print atlases [33,34]; (4) creation of improved atlases derived from the print content by postprocessing, enhancements, and extensions [35,36]; and (5) development of new electronic atlases (such as early ones, e.g., by Bohm et al and Greitz et al) constructed from digitized cryosection photographs [37,38].…”

Towards an Architecture of a Multi-purpose, User-Extendable Reference Human Brain Atlas

“…Atlas-based Segmenter handles the results of atlas-guided segmentation and its implementation can benefit from that in a multi-atlas (Nowinski et al, 1997b ) managing 11 brain atlas volumes with diverse representations.…”

“…Some software engineering issues arising in implementing our brain atlas platforms we addressed earlier, e.g., in (Nowinski et al, 1997b , 2002a , 2012b ), however, the proposed architecture is more complex than those of any of our previous atlases.…”