Rootlets-based registration to the spinal cord PAM50 template

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Bédard, Sandrine, Valošek, Jan, Oliva, Valeria, Weber II, Kenneth A., Cohen-Adad, Julien
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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author Bédard, Sandrine
Valošek, Jan
Oliva, Valeria
Weber II, Kenneth A.
Cohen-Adad, Julien
author_facet Bédard, Sandrine
Valošek, Jan
Oliva, Valeria
Weber II, Kenneth A.
Cohen-Adad, Julien
contents Spinal cord functional MRI studies require precise localization of spinal levels for reliable voxelwise group analyses. Traditional template-based registration of the spinal cord uses intervertebral discs for alignment. However, substantial anatomical variability across individuals exists between vertebral and spinal levels. This study proposes a novel registration approach that leverages spinal nerve rootlets to improve alignment accuracy and reproducibility across individuals. We developed a registration method leveraging dorsal cervical rootlets segmentation and aligning them non-linearly with the PAM50 spinal cord template. Validation was performed on a multi-subject, multi-site dataset (n=267, 44 sites) and a multi-subject dataset with various neck positions (n=10, 3 sessions). We further validated the method on task-based functional MRI (n=23) to compare group-level activation maps using rootlet-based registration to traditional disc-based methods. Rootlet-based registration showed superior alignment across individuals compared to the traditional disc-based method. Notably, rootlet positions were more stable across neck positions. Group-level analysis of task-based functional MRI using rootlet-based increased Z scores and activation cluster size compared to disc-based registration (number of active voxels from 3292 to 7978). Rootlet-based registration enhances both inter- and intra-subject anatomical alignment and yields better spatial normalization for group-level fMRI analyses. Our findings highlight the potential of rootlet-based registration to improve the precision and reliability of spinal cord neuroimaging group analysis.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_00115
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Rootlets-based registration to the spinal cord PAM50 template
Bédard, Sandrine
Valošek, Jan
Oliva, Valeria
Weber II, Kenneth A.
Cohen-Adad, Julien
Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Spinal cord functional MRI studies require precise localization of spinal levels for reliable voxelwise group analyses. Traditional template-based registration of the spinal cord uses intervertebral discs for alignment. However, substantial anatomical variability across individuals exists between vertebral and spinal levels. This study proposes a novel registration approach that leverages spinal nerve rootlets to improve alignment accuracy and reproducibility across individuals. We developed a registration method leveraging dorsal cervical rootlets segmentation and aligning them non-linearly with the PAM50 spinal cord template. Validation was performed on a multi-subject, multi-site dataset (n=267, 44 sites) and a multi-subject dataset with various neck positions (n=10, 3 sessions). We further validated the method on task-based functional MRI (n=23) to compare group-level activation maps using rootlet-based registration to traditional disc-based methods. Rootlet-based registration showed superior alignment across individuals compared to the traditional disc-based method. Notably, rootlet positions were more stable across neck positions. Group-level analysis of task-based functional MRI using rootlet-based increased Z scores and activation cluster size compared to disc-based registration (number of active voxels from 3292 to 7978). Rootlet-based registration enhances both inter- and intra-subject anatomical alignment and yields better spatial normalization for group-level fMRI analyses. Our findings highlight the potential of rootlet-based registration to improve the precision and reliability of spinal cord neuroimaging group analysis.
title Rootlets-based registration to the spinal cord PAM50 template
topic Image and Video Processing
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.00115