NURBS-based analysis of gender-related variability of the human brain surface

A statistical approach based on non-uniform rational b-splines (NURBS) to detect and visualize the variability associated between the brain surfaces of male and female adults is presented. A deformable NURBS surface is used initially to segment the brains from normalized magnetic resonance (MR) images. The NURBS surface of an adult brain is then deformed to converge onto a representative subject image. Significant deformation of surface points are captured by statistical analysis of the deformation vectors. To detect significant variability in sulci and gyri patterns, the Laplacian curvature of the significantly deformed points are computed. Results are demonstrated using MR head scans of 20 normal male and female adults.