Voxel processing techniques for the antemortem study of neuroanatomy and neuropathology using magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

BRAINBLAST, a program that uses voxel processing, was developed in order to produce high-fidelity three-dimensional reconstructions of the brain. Four steps were used to produce images: washing away cerebrospinal fluid (via histogramming), dissecting away the blood vessels (via a connectivity heuristic), highlighting the sulci and gyri (via a lighting model), and resampling the interior contents of the brain. After reconstruction, the images can be resampled, rotated, written on, measured, or redissected. The technique has a variety of applications: study of individual variation in sulcal and gyral patterns, evaluation of structure/function relationships, measurement of volumes or subregions using anatomically defined landmarks, and teaching of neuroanatomy.