Automatic morphological assessment in a transgenic CACNA1A knockin migraine mouse model in in-vivo high-resolution MRM

Because of its close genetic and physiological similarities to humans, as well as the ease with which its genome can be manipulated, the mouse became the mammalian model of choice for genetic research. A first step in describing the potential impact of a given genetic manipulation is the characterization of general morphology. The use of 3-dimensional imaging techniques with high spatial resolution, such as magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM), became crucial because such imaging tools can expedite anatomical phenotyping in the genetically altered mice. In this paper we describe a fully automatic MRM image brain segmentation method and its application to phenotypical characterization of brain structures in a migraine mouse model, assessing volume and morphology of the cerebellar white matter and the brain ventricles. Our segmentation is atlas-based and is designed for in-vivo MRM image analysis