Talairach-Tournoux brain atlas registration using a metalforming principle-based finite element method

In this paper, a novel non-rigid registration method is proposed for regist ration of the Talairach-Tournoux brain atlas with MRI images and the Schalt enbrand-Wahren brain atlas. A metalforming principle-based finite element m ethod with the large deformation problem is used to find the local deformat ion, in which finite element equations are governed by constraints in the f orm of displacements derived from the correspondence relationship between e xtracted feature points. Some detectable substructures, such as the cortica l surface, ventricles and corpus callosum, are first extracted from MRI, fo rming feature points which are classified into different groups. The softas sign method is used to establish the correspondence relationship between fe ature points within each group and to obtain the global transformation conc urrently. The displacement constraints are then derived from the correspond ence relationship. A metalforming principle-based finite element method wit h the large deformation problem is used in which finite element equations a re reorganized and simplified by integrating the displacement constraints i nto the system equations. Our method not only matches the model to the data efficiently, but also decreases the degrees of freedom of the system and c onsequently reduces the computational cost. The method is illustrated by ma tching the Talairach-Tournoux brain atlas to MRI normal and pathological da ta and to the Schaltenbrand-Wahren brain atlas. We compare the results quan titatively between the force assignment-based method and the proposed metho d. The results show that the proposed method yields more accurate results i n a fraction of the time taken by the previous method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.