大脑皮层褶皱形成“共推理论”研究

项目名称： 大脑皮层褶皱形成“共推理论”研究

项目编号： No.31500798

项目类型： 青年科学基金项目

立项/批准年度： 2016

项目学科： 生物科学

项目作者： 张拓

作者单位： 西北工业大学

项目金额： 20万元

中文摘要： 皮层褶皱是大脑的一个重要特征。对大脑皮层褶皱形成机理的研究本质上是对大脑结构以及功能形成机理的研究。然而已有的理论很少同时考虑多个因素，也很少使用多种数据，因此在一定程度上具片面性。本项目拟在前期神经元轴突“单推理论”基础上，增加神经元细胞体的作用，提出皮层褶皱形成新理论：神经元轴突和神经元细胞体的“共推理论”。在方法上，我们拟使用宏观和微观数据联合分析的方法，发挥各数据模态的优势，分别量化神经元轴突与皮层褶皱之间关系以及神经元细胞体与皮层褶皱之间关系，尝试为“共推理论”提供尽可能“全面”的量化证据。另外，为了更好的研究神经元轴突和神经元细胞体这两个因素是如何在时间轴上交替或者共同对影响皮层褶皱形成，我们拟对多时间点数据进行量化分析，尝试为“共推理论”提供“动态”证据。本项目将为研究大脑皮层褶皱形成机理开辟新的研究途径，其结果将为大脑认知原理、物种间的进化和脑疾病病理等的研究提供新的思路。

中文关键词： 图像特征提取；图像处理与分析；形状模型；扩散磁共振成像

英文摘要： Cerebral cortical folding is an important feature of brain structure. Exploring the mecha-nism of cortical folding may bring new insights into exploring the developmental mechanism of brain structure and function. However, works available in literature barely considered more than one possible factor (i.e., neuronal proliferation and projection, neuronal axon development) that contributes to cortical folding. Also, few of them have conducted joint analysis by using data of multiple modalities. Therefore, the hypotheses proposed in those works are limited to one aspect or another. This project will be proposed based on our previous hypothesis that cortical folding is caused by the pushing force of neuronal axons, defined as “single-cause pushing hypothesis”. We will propose promotion to this hypothesis by incorporating two factors, the pushing effect of neu-ron growth and the pushing force of neuronal axon, and come up with a novel “joint pushing hy-pothesis”. Technically, we will develop joint analysis methods to use and take the most advantages of macro-scale and micro-scale data. Based on the methods, we will quantify the three elements: cortical folding, neurons and neuronal axons, and further quantify the relationship between cortical folding and neuronal axons and the relationship between cortical folding and neurons, so that more “comprehensive” data-based evidence can be provided to the novel hypothesis. Also, we will use longitudinal data to study how the two factors alternately and jointly contribute to cortical folding, so that “dynamic” evidence to the novel hypothesis can be obtained. This project will provide a new way of studying the cerebral cortical folding mechanism. The results may hold the clue to brain evolution and brain diseases.

英文关键词： Image Feature Extraction;Image Processing and Analysis;Shape Model;Diffusion MRI