Andreia Vasconcellos Faria1,2, Barbara Landau1, Kirsten O'Hearn1, Jiangyang Zhang1, Kenishi Oishi1, Xin Li1, Hangyi Jiang1, Kazi Akhter1, Koji Sakai1,3, Peter van Zijl1,4, Susumu Mori1, Michael I. Miller5
1Johns Hopkins Medical Institutes, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2State University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil; 3 Kyoto University, Japan; 4Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA; 5Center for Imaging Studies, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA
We investigated Williams Syndrome patients brains using Diffusion Tensor Images (DTI) that provide suitable intra-white matter contrast. Using a nonlinear warping algorithm based on large deformation, diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM) we registered participants into common coordinates. The recently established brain atlas was used to automatically segment the brains which enabled us to investigate differences in individual regions. Detected differences in size and fractional anisotropy were compatible with the physiophatological and clinical characteristics of this disease, which include impairment of functional systems responsible for abilities such as visuospatial notion, language, and socio-comportamental behavior.