PCA and level set based non-rigid image registration for MRI and Paxinos-Watson atlas of rat brain

摘要

Image registration provides the ability to geometrically align one dataset with another. It is a basic task in a great variety of biomedical imaging applications. This paper introduced a novel three-dimensional registration method for Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) and Paxinos-Watson Atlas of rat brain. For the purpose of adapting to a large range and non-linear deformation between MRI and atlas in higher registration accuracy, based on the segmentation of rat brain, we chose the principle components analysis (PCA) automatically performing the linear registration, and then, a level set based nonlinear registration correcting some small distortions. We implemented this registration method in a rat brain 3D reconstruction and analysis system. Experiments have demonstrated that this method can be successfully applied to registering the low resolution and noise affection MRI with Paxinos-Watson Atlas of rat brain.