Paul Thompson's Research Publications

A Detection System for Mapping Abnormal Structure, Anatomic Variability and Brain Asymmetry in Alzheimer's Disease and Aging, with 3D Deformable Probabilistic Brain Atlases

Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of the Society for Neuroscience, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, [to appear, Oct. 1997]

Paul M. Thompson, Michael S. Mega, Rebecca E. Blanton, Jacob Moussai, Aelia A. Khan, Shahin Zohoori, Joshua Mogy, Jonathan Aron, Amir Goldkorn, Colin J. Holmes, Gary W. Small, Jeffrey Cummings, David MacDonald, Alan C. Evans, Robert C. Collins, Arthur W. Toga

Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Department of Neurology, Division of Brain Mapping, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California 90095, and

Alzheimer's Disease Center, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles CA 90095, and

Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Abstract:

High-resolution probabilistic atlases of the brain in normal aging and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) were constructed from a reference archive of T1-weighted 256x256x170 resolution 3D MRI scans of 10 AD patients (age:71.9+/-10.9 yrs.) and 10 age-matched controls (72.9+/-5.6 yrs.), which were digitally transformed into Talairach stereotaxic space. Connected systems of parametric meshes were used to model internal trajectories of 33 different structures including parieto-occipital, calcarine, cingulate, marginal, callosal sulci, Sylvian fissures, 14 ventricular regions, superior and inferior hippocampal surfaces and other major lobar and cytoarchitectural boundaries in 3 dimensions. High-dimensional volumetric maps, with 0.1 billion degrees of freedom, were computed, fluidly reconfiguring the anatomy of different subjects into structural correspondence. Resulting information on complex variations in gyral and subcortical topography were encoded as a non-stationary Gaussian random vector field and used to detect, highlight and quantify regional patterns of deformity in the anatomy of new subjects. Both subject groups displayed striking asymmetries in ventricular and perisylvian anatomy, with selective callosal, hippocampal and cortical atrophy in AD. These probabilistic atlasing techniques generate anatomical templates and expert diagnostic systems which retain and exploit information on inter-subject and inter-group variations in brain architecture.

Grant Support:

(PT:) Howard Hughes Medical Institute, United States Information Agency & US-UK Fulbright Commission; (AWT:) NIMH/NIDA (P20MH/DA52176), NSF (BIR9322434), NLM (LM/MH05639) and NCRR (RR05956).

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Contact Information

  • Mail:

    Paul Thompson
    73-360 Brain Research Institute
    UCLA Medical Center
    10833 Le Conte Avenue
    Westwood, Los Angeles CA 90095-1761, USA.

  • E-mail: thompson@loni.ucla.edu
  • Tel: (310)206-2101
  • Fax: (310)206-5518


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