Combined Laplacian-equivolumic model for studying cortical lamination with ultra high field MRI (7 T)

Abstract : The fine spatial resolution and novel contrasts offered by high-field magnetic resonance allow in vivo detection of histological layers in the cerebral cortex. This opens the way to in vivo analysis of cortical lamination, but the comparison of lamination profiles has proved challenging because the layers’ geometry is strongly influenced by cortical curvature. This paper introduces a model of the micro-structural organization of the cortex, which can compensate for the effect of cortical curvature. Layers are modelled by an equivolumic principle, while the vertical structure of the cortex is represented with a Laplacian model. In this framework, lamination profiles can be represented in a way that preserves the original voxel sampling of the acquisition. This model is validated on a magnetic resonance image of a post-mortem human brain acquired on a human 7 T scanner at 0.35 mm resolution.