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A0499
Title: Nonparametric Bayes models of fiber curves connecting brain regions Authors:  Zhengwu Zhang - UNC Chapel Hill (United States) [presenting]
Abstract: In studying structural inter-connections of human brain, it is common to first estimate fiber bundles connecting different regions relying on diffusion MRI. These fiber bundles act as highways for neural activity, snaking through the brain and connecting different regions. Current statistical methods for analyzing these fibers reduce the rich information into an adjacency matrix, with the elements containing a count of fibers or a mean diffusion feature along the fibers. The goal is to avoid discarding the rich geometric information of fibers, developing flexible models for characterizing the population distribution of fibers between brain regions of interest within and across different individuals. We start by decomposing each fiber into a corresponding rotation matrix, shape and translation from a global reference curve. These components can be viewed as data lying on a product space composed of different Euclidean spaces and manifolds. To non-parametrically model the distribution within and across individuals, we rely on a hierarchical mixture of product kernels specific to the component spaces. Taking a Bayesian approach to inference, we develop efficient methods for posterior sampling. The approach automatically produces clusters of fibers within and across individuals, and yields interesting new insights into variation in fiber curves.