A Unified Kernel Regression for Diffusion Wavelets on Manifolds Detects Aging-Related Changes in the Amygdala and Hippocampus

We present a new unified kernel regression framework on manifolds. Starting with a symmetric positive definite kernel, we formulate a new bivariate kernel regression framework that is related to heat diffusion, kernel smoothing and recently popular diffusion wavelets. Various properties and performance of the proposed kernel regression framework are demonstrated. The method is subsequently applied in investigating the influence of age and gender on the human amygdala and hippocampus shapes. We detected a significant age effect on the posterior regions of hippocampi while there is no gender effect present.