Mapping the Cerebral Sulci: Application to Morphological Analysis of the Cortex and to Non-rigid Registration

Abs t rac t . We propose a methodology for extracting parametric representations of the cerebral sulci from magnetic resonance images, and we consider its application to two medical imaging problems: quantitative morphological analysis and spatial normalization and registration of brain images. Our methodology is based on deformable models utilizing characteristics of the cortical shape. Specifically, a parametric representation of a sulcus is determined by the motion of an active contour along the medial surface of the corresponding cortical fold. The active contour is initialized along the outer boundary of the brain, and deforms toward the deep edge of a sulcus under the influence of an external force field restricting it to lie along the medial surface of the particular cortical fold. A parametric representation of the surface is obtained as the active contour traverses the sulcus. In this paper we present results of this methodology and its applications.