Brain tissues have single-voxel signatures in multi-spectral MRI

German A, Mennecke A, Martin J, Hanspach J, Liebert A, Herrler J, Kuder TA, Schmidt M, Nagel AM, Uder M, Dörfler A, Winkler J, Zaiß M, Laun FB (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

NeuroImage Elsevier

Book Volume: 234

Article Number: 117986

DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117986

Abstract

Since the seminal works by Brodmann and contemporaries, it is well-known that different brain regions exhibit unique cytoarchitectonic and myeloarchitectonic features. Transferring the approach of classifying brain tissues – and other tissues – based on their intrinsic features to the realm of magnetic resonance (MR) is a longstanding endeavor. In the 1990s, atlas-based segmentation replaced earlier multi-spectral classification approaches because of the large overlap between the class distributions. Here, we explored the feasibility of performing global brain classification based on intrinsic MR features, and used several technological advances: ultra-high field MRI, q-space trajectory diffusion imaging revealing voxel-intrinsic diffusion properties, chemical exchange saturation transfer and semi-solid magnetization transfer imaging as a marker of myelination and neurochemistry, and current neural network architectures to analyze the data. In particular, we used the raw image data as well to increase the number of input features. We found that a global brain classification of roughly 97 brain regions was feasible with gross classification accuracy of 60%; and that mapping from voxel-intrinsic MR data to the brain region to which the data belongs is possible. This indicates the presence of unique MR signals of different brain regions, similar to their cytoarchitectonic and myeloarchitectonic fingerprints.

Authors with CRIS profile

Angelika Mennecke Department of Neuroradiology Jannis Hanspach Professur für quantitative MR-Bildgebung (Heisenberg-Professur) Andrzej Liebert Professur für metabolische und funktionelle MR-Bildgebung Jürgen Herrler Department of Neuroradiology Manuel Schmidt Department of Neuroradiology Armin Michael Nagel Professur für metabolische und funktionelle MR-Bildgebung Michael Uder Lehrstuhl für Diagnostische Radiologie Arnd Dörfler Department of Neuroradiology Jürgen Winkler Professur für Molekulare Neurologie Moritz Zaiß Professur für Multimodale Bildgebung in der klinischen Forschung Frederik Bernd Laun Professur für quantitative MR-Bildgebung (Heisenberg-Professur)

Involved external institutions

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

German, A., Mennecke, A., Martin, J., Hanspach, J., Liebert, A., Herrler, J.,... Laun, F.B. (2021). Brain tissues have single-voxel signatures in multi-spectral MRI. NeuroImage, 234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117986

MLA:

German, Alexander, et al. "Brain tissues have single-voxel signatures in multi-spectral MRI." NeuroImage 234 (2021).

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