MASI Lab to host multi-year MRI white matter challenge
Submissions are due March 7 for a new global challenge hosted by the Medical-imaging Analysis and Statistical Interpretation Lab that focuses on a complex issue in brain mapping – microstructure validation using diffusion MRI.
Diffusion MRI, which is non-invasive, has emerged as a key modality for studying normal and abnormal brain development, aging, and brain disorders. Neuroscience researchers, however, have estimated white matter microstructures in different ways, making validation of dMRI techniques of critical importance so they result in accurate and precise results that can be reproduced.
The two-year White Matter Microstructure with Diffusion MRI Challenge is broken into three sub-challenges. The first year will be dedicated to designing the challenge, building the appropriate datasets and presenting findings in April during the 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) conference in Venice, Italy.
In year two, participating research groups and clinicians implement their submissions and algorithms. The sub-challenges tackle separate but related components of this emerging and promising approach to brain imaging:
- Assessing the diffusion MRI and neuroimaging field’s understanding of the MRI signal,
- Estimating measurements of white matter microstructures, and
- Evaluating the specificity and sensitivity of potential biomarkers.
Broadly speaking, the goals are to better understand the images or contrast from diffusion MRI and relate the contrast to the tissue microstructure.
The ISBI 2019 MRI White Matter Reconstruction Challenge is seeking paper submissions for poster presentations to be held during the workshop on April 11. All submissions must be submitted electronically following the ISBI conference paper guidelines (IEEE 4-page paper format) and submitted through Microsoft CMT submission system.
Deadline for submission is March 7, 2019.