Abstract
Human striatum is involved in the regulation of movement,
reinforcement, learning, reward, cognitive functioning, and addiction.
Previous classical volumetric MRI studies have implicated age-, disease- and
medication-related changes in striatal structures. Yet, no studies to date
have addressed the effects of these factors on the shape variability and
local structural alterations in the striatum. The local alterations may
provide meaningful additional information in the context of functional
neuroanatomy and brain connectivity. We developed image analysis methodology
for the measurement of the volume and local shape variability of the human
striatum. The method was applied in a group of 43 healthy controls to study
the effects of age and gender on striatal shape variability. In the volume
analysis, the volume of the striatum was normalized using the volume of the
whole brain. In the local shape analysis, the deviations from a mean surface
were studied for each surface point using high-dimensional mapping. Also,
discriminant functions were constructed from a statistical shape model. The
accuracy and reproducibility of the methods used were evaluated. The results
confirmed that the volume of the striatum decreases as a function of age.
However, the volume decrease was not uniform and age-related shape
differences were observed in several subregions of the human striatum whereas
no local gender differences were seen. Examination of the variability of
striatal shape in the healthy population will pave the way for applying this
method in clinical settings. This method will be particularly useful for
investigating neuropsychiatric disorders that are associated with subtle
morphological alterations of the brain, such as schizophrenia.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 85-93 |
Journal | NeuroImage |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2007 |
MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Keywords
- Striatum
- Shape analysis
- Volume analysis
- PDM