Abstract
Structural brain connectivity can be characterised by studies employing diffusion MR, tractography and the derivation of network measures. However, in some subject populations, such as neonates, the lack of a generally accepted paradigm for how the brain should be segmented or parcellated leads to the application of a variety of atlas- and random-based parcellation methods. The resulting challenge of comparing graphs with differing numbers of nodes and uncertain node correspondences has yet to be resolved, in order to enable more meaningful intra- and inter-subject comparisons. This work proposes a parcellation-independent multi-scale analysis of commonly used network measures to describe changes in the brain. As an illustration, we apply our framework to a neonatal serial diffusion MRI data set and show its potential in characterising developmental changes. Furthermore, we use the measures provided by the framework to investigate the inter-dependence between network measures and apply an hierarchical clustering algorithm to determine a subset of measures for characterising the brain.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health. Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Transplantation, King’s College London, UK—MRC grant no. MR/J006742/1.
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Schirmer, M.D. et al. (2014). Parcellation-Independent Multi-Scale Framework for Brain Network Analysis. In: O'Donnell, L., Nedjati-Gilani, G., Rathi, Y., Reisert, M., Schneider, T. (eds) Computational Diffusion MRI. Mathematics and Visualization. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11182-7_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11182-7_3
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