Automated voxel classification used with atlas-guided diffuse optical tomography for assessment of functional brain networks in young and older adults

Lin Li; Mary Cazzell; Olajide M. Babawale; Hanli Liu

doi:10.1117/1.NPh.3.4.045002

6 October 2016 Automated voxel classification used with atlas-guided diffuse optical tomography for assessment of functional brain networks in young and older adults

Lin Li, Mary Cazzell, Olajide M. Babawale, Hanli Liu

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Neurophotonics, Vol. 3, Issue 4, 045002 (October 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.NPh.3.4.045002

Abstract

Atlas-guided diffuse optical tomography (atlas-DOT) is a computational means to image changes in cortical hemodynamic signals during human brain activities. Graph theory analysis (GTA) is a network analysis tool commonly used in functional neuroimaging to study brain networks. Atlas-DOT has not been analyzed with GTA to derive large-scale brain connectivity/networks based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) measurements. We introduced an automated voxel classification (AVC) method that facilitated the use of GTA with atlas-DOT images by grouping unequal-sized finite element voxels into anatomically meaningful regions of interest within the human brain. The overall approach included volume segmentation, AVC, and cross-correlation. To demonstrate the usefulness of AVC, we applied reproducibility analysis to resting-state functional connectivity measurements conducted from 15 young adults in a two-week period. We also quantified and compared changes in several brain network metrics between young and older adults, which were in agreement with those reported by a previous positron emission tomography study. Overall, this study demonstrated that AVC is a useful means for facilitating integration or combination of atlas-DOT with GTA and thus for quantifying NIRS-based, voxel-wise resting-state functional brain networks.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Lin Li, Mary Cazzell, Olajide M. Babawale, and Hanli Liu "Automated voxel classification used with atlas-guided diffuse optical tomography for assessment of functional brain networks in young and older adults," Neurophotonics 3(4), 045002 (6 October 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.NPh.3.4.045002

Published: 6 October 2016

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