Visual exploration of genetic association with voxel-based imaging phenotypes in an MCI/AD study

Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2009:2009:3849-52. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2009.5332570.

Abstract

Neuroimaging genomics is a new transdisciplinary research field, which aims to examine genetic effects on brain via integrated analyses of high throughput neuroimaging and genomic data. We report our recent work on (1) developing an imaging genomic browsing system that allows for whole genome and entire brain analyses based on visual exploration and (2) applying the system to the imaging genomic analysis of an existing MCI/AD cohort. Voxel-based morphometry is used to define imaging phenotypes. ANCOVA is employed to evaluate the effect of the interaction of genotypes and diagnosis in relation to imaging phenotypes while controlling for relevant covariates. Encouraging experimental results suggest that the proposed system has substantial potential for enabling discovery of imaging genomic associations through visual evaluation and for localizing candidate imaging regions and genomic regions for refined statistical modeling.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Aging
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnosis
  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Brain Mapping / methods*
  • Cognition Disorders / diagnosis
  • Cognition Disorders / genetics
  • Cohort Studies
  • Computer Graphics*
  • Diagnostic Imaging / instrumentation*
  • Diagnostic Imaging / methods
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
  • Genomics / methods
  • Humans
  • Neurons / pathology*
  • Pattern Recognition, Automated / methods
  • Phenotype