Gyrus and Sulcus Modelling Utilizing a Generic Topography Analysis Strategy for Processing Arbitrarily Oriented 3D Surfaces

Accurate and robust identification of the gyri and sulci of the human brain is a pre-requisite of high importance for modelling the brain surface and thus to facilitate quantitative measurements and novel classification concepts. In this work we introduce a watershed-inspired image processing strategy for topographical analysis of arbitrary surfaces in 3D. Thereby the object's topographical structure represented as depth profile is iteratively transformed into cyclic graph representations of both, the lowest and the highest characteristics of the particular shape. For graph analysis, the surface elements are partitioned according to their depth value. Neighbouring regions at different depth levels are iteratively merged. For region merging, the shape defining medial axes of the involved regions have to be connected by the optimum path with respect to a fitness function balancing shortness and minimal depth level changes of the solution.