Automatic brain MR image registration based on Talairach reference system

An automatic process of determining specified points in brain is presented, which is required to register brain MR images based on Talairach reference system. Generally, the 10 points that are needed to be determined for the registration are anterior commissure(AC), posterior commissure (PC), anterior point (AP), posterior point (PP), superiorpoint (SP), inferior point (IP), left point (LP), right point (RP) and two points for the midline of the brain. The proposed method automatically determines all the necessary points for registration except IP in a more stable manner than the manual selections. Projection information of the image intensity is used for the midline determination which is a necessary step for the midsagittal plane extraction. To find AC and PC in the midsagittal plane image, two-level shape matching of the corpus callosum followed by AC and PC shape matching is performed in the edge-enhanced midsagittal plane image. Remaining points are found by fitting the intensity curve of the cutview with the Gaussian model. After finding the necessary points, the brain MR images can be successfully registered.