The brain in a box: A toolbox for creating Cartesian geometric representations with isometric dimensions (Cgrids)

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Computational Biology
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• The folded structure of the human cortex presents challenges for extracting positional information and recognizing patterns across its surface.
• Traditional methods struggle with the complex geometry of the cortical surface, hindering spatial analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel approach for representing cortical surface data in a standardized, easily analyzable format.
• To introduce the Cgrid toolbox for imposing Cartesian grids on cortical regions, facilitating spatial orientation and pattern recognition.

Main Methods:

• Developed the Cgrid (Cartesian Geometric Representation with Isometric Dimensions) toolbox, implementing functions to generate Cartesian grids on cortical surfaces.
• Utilized Freesurfer's annotation schemes to define regions of interest for Cgrid generation.
• Represented cortical surface portions as rectangular matrices.

Main Results:

• Successfully generated Cgrids for nearly the entire brain surface across 30 subjects, with a 90.4% success rate.
• The Cgrid toolbox demonstrated effectiveness in facilitating spatial orientation and pattern recognition on cortical surfaces.
• Generated Cgrids are compatible with existing fMRI/MRI analysis packages.

Conclusions:

• The Cgrid toolbox enhances spatial orientation and pattern recognition on the cortical surface.
• It enables detailed hemispheric comparisons and integrates surface data with volumetric analysis tools.
• The toolbox offers broad applicability, particularly for studies prioritizing data handling and representation ease.