ACU-Net: Attention-based convolutional U-Net model for segmenting brain tumors in fMRI images

Accurate segmentation of brain tumors in medical imaging is essential for diagnosis and treatment planning. Current techniques often struggle with capturing complex tumor features and are computationally demanding, limiting their clinical application. This study introduces the attention-based convolutional U-Net (ACU-Net) model, designed to improve segmentation accuracy and efficiency in fMRI images by incorporating attention mechanisms that selectively highlight critical features while preserving spatial context.

The ACU-Net model combines convolutional neural networks (CNNs) with attention mechanisms to enhance feature extraction and spatial coherence. We evaluated ACU-Net on the BraTS 2018 and BraTS 2020 fMRI datasets using rigorous data splitting for training, validation, and testing. Performance metrics, particularly Dice scores, were used to assess segmentation accuracy across different tumor regions, including whole tumor (WT), tumor core (TC), and enhancing tumor (ET) classes.

ACU-Net demonstrated high segmentation accuracy, achieving Dice scores of 99.23%, 99.27%, and 96.99% for WT, TC, and ET, respectively, on the BraTS 2018 dataset, and 98.72%, 98.40%, and 97.66% for WT, TC, and ET on the BraTS 2020 dataset. These results indicate that ACU-Net effectively captures tumor boundaries and subregions with precision, surpassing traditional segmentation approaches.

The ACU-Net model shows significant potential to enhance clinical diagnosis and treatment planning by providing precise and efficient brain tumor segmentation in fMRI images. The integration of attention mechanisms within a CNN architecture proves beneficial for identifying complex tumor structures, suggesting that ACU-Net can be a valuable tool in medical imaging applications.