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Abstract #4701

Implicit Reference-Based Group Registration in Structural and Functional MRI Studies

Xiujuan Geng1, Hong Gu1, Thomas J. Ross1, Yihong Yang1

1Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA


We propose an implicit reference-based group (IRG) registration method with a high-dimensional elastic deformation model to align structural or functional images within groups. The performance of the IRG method was evaluated using T1-weighted MR images with pre-defined ROIs and compared with reference-based registration methods. Results show that IRG registration produces better registration performance in terms of higher relative overlaps. IRG registration was also applied to an fMRI study with a motor and visual task. The statistical detection power is improved by the elastic registration compared to the affine approach and IRG registration further increases the power compared to reference-based methods.