Wavelet Features for Recognition of First Episode of Schizophrenia from MRI Brain Images

Machine learning methods are increasingly used in various fields of medicine, contributing to early diagnosis and better quality of care. These outputs are particularly desirable in case of neuropsychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia, due to the inherent potential for creating a new gold standard in the diagnosis and differentiation of particular disorders. This paper presents a scheme for automated classification from magnetic resonance images based on multiresolution representation in the wavelet domain. Implementation of the proposed algorithm, utilizing support vector machines classifier, is introduced and tested on a dataset containing 104 patients with first episode schizophrenia and healthy volunteers. Optimal parameters of different phases of the algorithm are sought and the quality of classification is estimated by robust cross validation techniques. Values of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity over 71% are achieved

BOLD fMRI Simulation

Background: Brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is sensitive to changes in blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) brain magnetic states. The fMRI scanner produces a complex-valued image, but the calculation of the original BOLD magnetic source is not a mathematically tractable problem. We conduct numeric simulations to understand the BOLD fMRI model

AM-FM Analysis of Structural and Functional Magnetic Resonance Images

This thesis proposes the application of multi-dimensional Amplitude-Modulation Frequency-Modulation (AM-FM) methods to magnetic resonance images (MRI). The basic goal is to provide a framework for exploring non-stationary characteristics of structural and functional MRI (sMRI and fMRI). First, we provide a comparison framework for the most popular AM-FM methods using different filterbank configurations that includes Gabor, Equirriple and multi-scale directional designs. We compare the performance and robustness to Gaussian noise using synthetic FM image examples. We show that the multi-dimensional quasi-local method (QLM) with an equiripple filterbank gave the best results in terms of instantaneous frequency (IF) estimation. We then apply the best performing AM-FM method to sMRI to compute the 3D IF features. We use a t-test on the IF magnitude for each voxel to find evidence of significant differences between healthy controls and patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (n=353) can be found in the IF. We also propose the use of the instantaneous phase (IP) as a new feature for analyzing fMRI images. Using principal component analysis and independent component analysis on the instantaneous phase from fMRI, we built spatial maps and identified brain regions that are biologically coherent with the task performed by the subject. This thesis provides the first application of AM-FM models to fMRI and sMRI

A fractal dimension based optimal wavelet packet analysis technique for classification of meningioma brain tumours

With the heterogeneous nature of tissue texture, using a single resolution approach for optimum classification might not suffice. In contrast, a multiresolution wavelet packet analysis can decompose the input signal into a set of frequency subbands giving the opportunity to characterise the texture at the appropriate frequency channel. An adaptive best bases algorithm for optimal bases selection for meningioma histopathological images is proposed, via applying the fractal dimension (FD) as the bases selection criterion in a tree-structured manner. Thereby, the most significant subband that better identifies texture discontinuities will only be chosen for further decomposition, and its fractal signature would represent the extracted feature vector for classification. The best basis selection using the FD outperformed the energy based selection approaches, achieving an overall classification accuracy of 91.25% as compared to 83.44% and 73.75% for the co-occurrence matrix and energy texture signatures; respectively

Multi-modal and multi-model interrogation of large-scale functional brain networks

Existing whole-brain models are generally tailored to the modelling of a particular data modality (e.g., fMRI or MEG/EEG). We propose that despite the differing aspects of neural activity each modality captures, they originate from shared network dynamics. Building on the universal principles of self-organising delay-coupled nonlinear systems, we aim to link distinct features of brain activity - captured across modalities - to the dynamics unfolding on a macroscopic structural connectome. To jointly predict connectivity, spatiotemporal and transient features of distinct signal modalities, we consider two large-scale models - the Stuart Landau and Wilson and Cowan models - which generate short-lived 40 Hz oscillations with varying levels of realism. To this end, we measure features of functional connectivity and metastable oscillatory modes (MOMs) in fMRI and MEG signals - and compare them against simulated data. We show that both models can represent MEG functional connectivity (FC), functional connectivity dynamics (FCD) and generate MOMs to a comparable degree. This is achieved by adjusting the global coupling and mean conduction time delay and, in the WC model, through the inclusion of balance between excitation and inhibition. For both models, the omission of delays dramatically decreased the performance. For fMRI, the SL model performed worse for FCD and MOMs, highlighting the importance of balanced dynamics for the emergence of spatiotemporal and transient patterns of ultra-slow dynamics. Notably, optimal working points varied across modalities and no model was able to achieve a correlation with empirical FC higher than 0.4 across modalities for the same set of parameters. Nonetheless, both displayed the emergence of FC patterns that extended beyond the constraints of the anatomical structure. Finally, we show that both models can generate MOMs with empirical-like properties such as size (number of brain regions engaging in a mode) and duration (continuous time interval during which a mode appears). Our results demonstrate the emergence of static and dynamic properties of neural activity at different timescales from networks of delay-coupled oscillators at 40 Hz. Given the higher dependence of simulated FC on the underlying structural connectivity, we suggest that mesoscale heterogeneities in neural circuitry may be critical for the emergence of parallel cross-modal functional networks and should be accounted for in future modelling endeavours

Hierarchical Processing of Auditory Objects in Humans

This work examines the computational architecture used by the brain during the analysis of the spectral envelope of sounds, an important acoustic feature for defining auditory objects. Dynamic causal modelling and Bayesian model selection were used to evaluate a family of 16 network models explaining functional magnetic resonance imaging responses in the right temporal lobe during spectral envelope analysis. The models encode different hypotheses about the effective connectivity between Heschl's Gyrus (HG), containing the primary auditory cortex, planum temporale (PT), and superior temporal sulcus (STS), and the modulation of that coupling during spectral envelope analysis. In particular, we aimed to determine whether information processing during spectral envelope analysis takes place in a serial or parallel fashion. The analysis provides strong support for a serial architecture with connections from HG to PT and from PT to STS and an increase of the HG to PT connection during spectral envelope analysis. The work supports a computational model of auditory object processing, based on the abstraction of spectro-temporal “templates” in the PT before further analysis of the abstracted form in anterior temporal lobe areas