Surface reconstruction from volume data used for creating an adaptable functional brain atlas

Functions for creating adaptable atlas structures from volume data have now been included in the Karolinska Computerized Brain Atlas (CBA) software system. The main objective is to allow the user to create functional structures based on data from brain activation studies with Positron Emission Tomography (PET). The new structures will be related to the anatomy of the CBA data base brain. Thus, when the atlas is adapted to the anatomy of an individual, the new functional structures will be affected by the same transformation and can therefore be selected and displayed in relation to the anatomy of the individual. In this paper, the different steps involved in the creation of new atlas structures are explained and algorithms and data representations are described. The methods have been tested on data from activation studies. Such a study is chosen to illustrate how the proposed approach can be used