A computational model of cerebral cortex folding

JOURNAL OF THEORETICAL BIOLOGY

卷:264

Article

Nie, Jingxin³  Guo, Lei³  Li, Gang³  Faraco, Carlos^2,4  Miller, L. Stephen^2,4  Liu, Tianming^1,2 

[1] Univ Georgia, Dept Comp Sci, Athens, GA 30602 USA

[2] Univ Georgia, Bioimaging Res Ctr, Athens, GA 30602 USA

[3] Northwestern Polytech Univ, Sch Automat, Xian 710072, Peoples R China

[4] Univ Georgia, Dept Psychol, Athens, GA 30602 USA

关键词: Cerebral cortex;    Fetus brain;    Neurodevelopment;    Modeling;    Neuroimaging;    Folding;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jtbi.2010.02.002

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

The geometric complexity and variability of the human cerebral cortex have long intrigued the scientific community. As a result, quantitative description of cortical folding patterns and the understanding of underlying folding mechanisms have emerged as important research goals. This paper presents a computational 3D geometric model of cerebral cortex folding initialized by MRI data of a human fetal brain and deformed under the governance of a partial differential equation modeling cortical growth. By applying different simulation parameters, our model is able to generate folding convolutions and shape dynamics of the cerebral cortex. The simulations of this 3D geometric model provide computational experimental support to the following hypotheses: (1) Mechanical constraints of the skull regulate the cortical folding process. (2) The cortical folding pattern is dependent on the global cell growth rate of the whole cortex. (3) The cortical folding pattern is dependent on relative rates of cell growth in different cortical areas. (4) The cortical folding pattern is dependent on the initial geometry of the cortex. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free