Resting-state FMRI single subject cortical parcellation based on region growing.

We propose a new method to parcellate the cerebral cortex based on spatial dependancy in the fluctuations observed with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) during rest. Our surface-based approach uses a region growing method. In contrast to previous methods, locally stable seed points are i...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Blumensath, T, Behrens, T, Smith, S
Format: Conference item
Published: 2012
Description
Summary:We propose a new method to parcellate the cerebral cortex based on spatial dependancy in the fluctuations observed with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) during rest. Our surface-based approach uses a region growing method. In contrast to previous methods, locally stable seed points are identified on the cortical surface and these are grown into a (relatively large 1000 to 5000) number of spatially contiguous regions on both hemispheres. Spatially constrained hierarchical clustering is then used to further combine these regions in a hierarchical tree. Using short-TR resting state fMRI data, this approach allows a subject specific parcellation of the cortex into anatomically plausible subregions, identified with high scan-to-scan reproducibility and with borders that delineate clear changes in functional connectivity.