An evaluation of automated tracing for orbitofrontal cortex sulcogyral pattern typing

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Computational Neuroscience
• Anatomy

Background:

• Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) sulcogyral patterns are key for individual variability assessment.
• Current manual tracing methods for OFC sulci lack reliability and reproducibility.
• Subjective interpretation in manual tracing complicates anatomical classification.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate an automated tracing procedure for characterizing OFC sulcogyral patterns.
• To assess the utility of automated methods in improving reliability and reproducibility.
• To enable characterization of OFC sulcal patterns in larger cohorts.

Main Methods:

• An automated tracing procedure using the BrainVISA Morphologist Pipeline was implemented.
• The procedure was evaluated on 100 subjects with existing manual OFC tracings.
• The automated method traced medial (MOS) and lateral (LOS) orbitofrontal sulci segments.

Main Results:

• Automated tracings accurately identified OFC sulci and their continuity.
• The procedure reliably informed manual sulcogyral pattern characterization.
• Automated tracings reduced subjective influence and produced consistent results.

Conclusions:

• Automated OFC sulci tracing is feasible and beneficial within a semi-automated pipeline.
• This method enhances the reliability and reproducibility of sulcogyral characterizations.
• Automated tracing allows for analysis of larger sample sizes, overcoming limitations of manual methods.