Hi Eva,
the approach behind the TOM toolbox is to use the general linear model
to statistically generate representative tissue classes from a control
population (instead of using a simple average). So yes, the approach is
well able to generate a custom template from any given reference
population (I personally think it is underused when studying disorders
such as Alzheimer's etc.), *given* that you have such a population.
In other words, if you have good reference data from 12-24 months old
infants, you can use the toolbox to create an appropriate template from
them. For the manuscript, we processed the data from older kids (6-18)
from the NIH study, and make this data available on the IRC's website.
We have not done this with other reference populations, but the TOM
toolbox can be used to that effect. With infants, be aware that the
bigger problem may be in obtaining good quality segmentation results to
feed into the toolbox in the first place. I would suggest you look in
the the infant data provided by the NIH, or other repositories.
Specifically, if you have such a population, you should
- segment the datasets using vbm8 (no priors used)
- write out the resulting tissue classes using an affine-only normalization
- use TOM to estimate regression parameters
- use TOM to generate new template
Alternatively, you could check the IRC's collection of infant brain
templates, at https://irc.chmcc.org/software/infant.php (or other
resources kindly provided by google), which may or may not be
appropriate for your purpose.
Hope this helps,
Marko
Eva Alden wrote:
> Dear SPMers,
>
> I am hoping to use the TOM toolbox to create a custom template for use
> in pediatric populations of 12 and 24 month olds. Does anyone know if
> the toolbox is still appropriate to use in children this young?
>
> Many thanks for your help.
>
> - Eva
>
> Eva C. Alden
> Clinical Psychology Doctoral Student
> Northwestern UniversityFeinberg School of Medicine
> Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
> Neuroimaging and Applied Computational Anatomy Lab
> 710 N. Lake Shore Drive, Abbott Hall, Suite 1312
> Chicago, IL 60611
>
--
____________________________________________________
PD Dr. med. Marko Wilke
Facharzt für Kinder- und Jugendmedizin
Leiter, Experimentelle Pädiatrische Neurobildgebung
Universitäts-Kinderklinik
Abt. III (Neuropädiatrie)
Marko Wilke, MD, PhD
Pediatrician
Head, Experimental Pediatric Neuroimaging
University Children's Hospital
Dept. III (Pediatric Neurology)
Hoppe-Seyler-Str. 1
D - 72076 Tübingen, Germany
Tel. +49 7071 29-83416
Fax +49 7071 29-5473
[log in to unmask]
http://www.medizin.uni-tuebingen.de/kinder/epn/
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