Measures for characterizing directionality specific volume changes in TBM of brain growth

Tensor based morphology (TBM) is a powerful approach to analyze local structural changes in brain anatomy. However, conventional scalar TBM methods are unable to present direction-specific analysis of volume changes required to model complex changes such as those during brain growth. In this paper, we describe novel TBM descriptors for studying direction-specific changes in a subject population which can be used in conjunction with scalar TBM to analyze local patterns in directionality of volume change during brain development. We illustrate the use of these methods by studying brain developmental patterns in fetuses. Results show that this approach detects early changes local growth that are related to the early stages of sulcal and gyral formation.