The paper proposes and evaluates a strategy for the alignment of
anatomical and functional data of the brain. The method takes as an
input two different sets of images of a same patient: MR data and
SPECT. It proceeds in four steps: first, it constructs two voxel
models from the two image sets; next, it extracts from the two voxel
models the surfaces of regions of interest; in the third step, the
surfaces are interactively aligned by corresponding pairs; finally a
unique volume model is constructed by selectively applying the
geometrical transformations associated to the regions and weighting
their contributions. The main advantages of this strategy are (i) that
it can be applied retrospectively, (ii) that it is tri-dimensional,
and (iii) that it is local. Its main disadvantage with regard to
previously published methods it that it requires the extraction of
surfaces. However, this step is often required for other stages of the
multimodal analysis such as the visualization and therefore its cost
can be accounted in the global cost of the process.Postprint (published version
