Multimodal 3D Image Registration for Mapping Brain Disorders

Abstract We introduce an AI-driven approach for robust 3D brain image registration, addressing challenges posed by diverse hardware scanners and imaging sites. Our model trained using an SSIM-driven loss function, prioritizes structural coherence over voxel-wise intensity matching, making it uniquely robust to inter-scanner and intra-modality variations. This innovative end-to-end framework combines global alignment and non-rigid registration modules, specifically designed to handle structural, intensity, and domain variances in 3D brain imaging data. Our approach outperforms the baseline model in handling these shifts, achieving results that align closely with clinical ground-truth measurements. We demonstrate its efficacy on 3D brain data from healthy individuals and dementia patients, with particular success in quantifying brain atrophy, a key biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders. By effectively managing variability in multisite, multi-scanner neuroimaging studies, our approach enhances the precision of atrophy measurements for clinical trials and longitudinal studies. This advancement promises to improve diagnostic and prognostic capabilities for neurodegenerative disorders.