Fuzzy modeling of knowledge for MRI brain structure segmentation

In this paper, we propose a novel automatic method based on fuzzy modeling of knowledge to segment brain structures in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) images. The segmentation is achieved by the region-wise classification using GAs (genetic algorithms), followed by voxel-wise refinement using parallel region growing. To improve the accuracy of the labeling, we introduce a fuzzy model of ROI (regions of interest) by analogy with the electrostatic potential distribution, to represent more appropriately knowledge of shape, distance and reaction between structures, and to estimate more reliably the statistical moments. This modeling is also used in the design of the fitness function of GAs, and the criteria of region growing. The performance of our proposed method is quantitatively validated by 4 indexes with respect to manually segmented images