Atlas generated generalized ROIs for use in functional neuroimaging

The interpretation of functional neuroimaging data can, in many cases, be facilitated by comparisons with simulated data corresponding to the measuring situation. A computerized brain atlas is used to provide information regarding the spatial extent of the object being imaged. This knowledge combined with information about the resolution of the imaging device expressed as point spread functions is used to calculate a simulated image of the object. The simulated image can be regarded as a generalized region of interest (ROI) containing information of the object as viewed by the specific instrument. Generalized ROIs are used to automatically determine boundaries of ordinary ROIs and to provide recovery coefficients to compensate for partial volume effects. Simulations can also be used to generate three-dimensional data sets where different activity levels have been assigned to different anatomical structures. These methods are presented here and some experimental results are shown