A Deep Learning Approach to Multi-Fiber Parameter Estimation and Uncertainty Quantification in Diffusion MRI

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Consagra, William, Ning, Lipeng, Rathi, Yogesh
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912251180482560
author Consagra, William
Ning, Lipeng
Rathi, Yogesh
author_facet Consagra, William
Ning, Lipeng
Rathi, Yogesh
contents Diffusion MRI (dMRI) is the primary imaging modality used to study brain microstructure in vivo. Reliable and computationally efficient parameter inference for common dMRI biophysical models is a challenging inverse problem, due to factors such as variable dimensionalities (reflecting the unknown number of distinct white matter fiber populations in a voxel), low signal-to-noise ratios, and non-linear forward models. These challenges have led many existing methods to use biologically implausible simplified models to stabilize estimation, for instance, assuming shared microstructure across all fiber populations within a voxel. In this work, we introduce a novel sequential method for multi-fiber parameter inference that decomposes the task into a series of manageable subproblems. These subproblems are solved using deep neural networks tailored to problem-specific structure and symmetry, and trained via simulation. The resulting inference procedure is largely amortized, enabling scalable parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification across all model parameters. Simulation studies and real imaging data analysis using the Human Connectome Project (HCP) demonstrate the advantages of our method over standard alternatives. In the case of the standard model of diffusion, our results show that under HCP-like acquisition schemes, estimates for extra-cellular parallel diffusivity are highly uncertain, while those for the intra-cellular volume fraction can be estimated with relatively high precision.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2405_13655
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Deep Learning Approach to Multi-Fiber Parameter Estimation and Uncertainty Quantification in Diffusion MRI
Consagra, William
Ning, Lipeng
Rathi, Yogesh
Image and Video Processing
Quantitative Methods
Applications
Computation
Diffusion MRI (dMRI) is the primary imaging modality used to study brain microstructure in vivo. Reliable and computationally efficient parameter inference for common dMRI biophysical models is a challenging inverse problem, due to factors such as variable dimensionalities (reflecting the unknown number of distinct white matter fiber populations in a voxel), low signal-to-noise ratios, and non-linear forward models. These challenges have led many existing methods to use biologically implausible simplified models to stabilize estimation, for instance, assuming shared microstructure across all fiber populations within a voxel. In this work, we introduce a novel sequential method for multi-fiber parameter inference that decomposes the task into a series of manageable subproblems. These subproblems are solved using deep neural networks tailored to problem-specific structure and symmetry, and trained via simulation. The resulting inference procedure is largely amortized, enabling scalable parameter estimation and uncertainty quantification across all model parameters. Simulation studies and real imaging data analysis using the Human Connectome Project (HCP) demonstrate the advantages of our method over standard alternatives. In the case of the standard model of diffusion, our results show that under HCP-like acquisition schemes, estimates for extra-cellular parallel diffusivity are highly uncertain, while those for the intra-cellular volume fraction can be estimated with relatively high precision.
title A Deep Learning Approach to Multi-Fiber Parameter Estimation and Uncertainty Quantification in Diffusion MRI
topic Image and Video Processing
Quantitative Methods
Applications
Computation
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.13655