Automatic Differentiation of Anatomical Patterns in the Human Brain: Validation with Studies of Degenerative Dementias

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 29 - 46
• Main Authors: Good, Catriona D., Scahill, Rachael I., Fox, Nick C., Ashburner, John, Friston, Karl J., Chan, Dennis, Crum, William R., Rossor, Martin N., Frackowiak, Richard S.J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01-09-2002; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Alzheimer Disease - cerebrospinal fluid; Alzheimer Disease - pathology; Alzheimer's disease; Atrophy; Brain - pathology; Dementia - cerebrospinal fluid; Dementia - pathology; Female; Humans; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - statistics & numerical data; Male; Middle Aged; Nerve Degeneration - cerebrospinal fluid; Nerve Degeneration - pathology; Organ Size - physiology; Reproducibility of Results; semantic dementia; Temporal Lobe - pathology; validity; voxel-based morphometry; voxel-based morphometry; validity; Alzheimer's disease; semantic dementia
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1006/nimg.2002.1202

We compared voxel-based morphometry (VBM) with independent accurate region-of-interest (ROI) measurements of temporal lobe structures in order to validate the usefulness of this fully automated and unbiased technique in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and semantic dementia (SD). In AD, ROI analyses appear more sensitive to volume loss in the amygdalae, whereas VBM analyses appear more sensitive to right middle temporal gyrus and regional hippocampal volume loss. In SD, ROI analyses appear more sensitive to left middle and inferior temporal gyrus volume loss, whereas VBM appears more sensitive to regional hippocampal volume loss. In addition the significance of volume reductions was generally less in VBM owing to more stringent corrections for multiple comparisons. In conclusion, the automated technique detects a general trend of atrophy similar to that of expertly labeled ROI measurements in AD and SD, although there are discrepancies in the ranking of severity and in the significance of volume reductions that are more marked in AD.