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Brain MRI atlases may be used to characterise brain structural changes across the life course. Atlases have important applications in research, e.g., as registration and segmentation targets to underpin image analysis in population imaging studies, and potentially in future in clinical practice, e.g., as templates for identifying brain structural changes out with normal limits, and increasingly for use in surgical planning. However, there are several caveats and limitations which must be considered before successfully applying brain MRI atlases to research and clinical problems. For example, the influential Talairach additional structural sequences, including fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T2* sequences; a range of appropriate statistics, e.g., rank-based or nonparametric; and detailed cognitive and clinical profiles of the included subjects in order to increase the relevance and utility of these atlases.
Dickie et al. (Thu,) studied this question.