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

Yann Leprince (1, 2) , Fabrice Poupon (1) , Thierry Delzescaux (3) , Dominique Hasboun (4) , Cyril Poupon (1) , Denis Rivière (1)

1 NEUROSPIN - Service NEUROSPIN
2 UP11 - Université Paris-Sud - Paris 11
3 MIRCEN - Service MIRCEN
4 ARAMIS - Algorithms, models and methods for images and signals of the human brain

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.

Keywords: advection; brain; equivolumic; column; Laplace; lamination; Bok; cortex; layer; cytoarchitecture; high-field MRI

Domains: Image Processing [eess.IV]; Medical Imaging; Imaging

Yann Leprince, Fabrice Poupon, Thierry Delzescaux, Dominique Hasboun, Cyril Poupon, et al.. Combined Laplacian-equivolumic model for studying cortical lamination with ultra high field MRI (7 T). 2015 IEEE 12th International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI), IEEE, Apr 2015, New York, United States. pp.580-583, ⟨10.1109/ISBI.2015.7163940⟩. ⟨cea-01119475v2⟩