McCormick Laurie M, Ziebell Steven, Nopoulos Peggy, Cassell Martin, Andreasen Nancy C, Brumm Michael
Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, 200 Hawkins Drive, W268 GH, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
Neuroimage. 2006 Sep;32(3):1167-75. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.04.227. Epub 2006 Jul 20.
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is an important part of the limbic system involved in emotions, cognition and executive function. The ACC has structurally distinct subregions, both microscopically and functionally, that have been implicated in several major psychiatric disorders. However, a structural analysis of these subregions with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has not been done. Our main purpose was to develop an MRI-based parcellation method of the ACC that permits us to explore plausible abnormalities in 4 functionally relevant subregions: dorsal, rostral, subcallosal and subgenual.
The reliability study for gray matter volume and surface area of each subregion was performed on 14 randomly selected MR scans by 3 different raters. Our method posits to conserve the topographic uniqueness of individual brains and is based on our ability to visualize both the 3-dimensional rendered brain and the 3 orthogonal planes simultaneously with BRAINS2 software. We developed rules to hand-trace regions of interest (ROI) to surround contiguous areas of gray matter for dorsal, rostral, subcallosal and subgenual regions. The ACC was then parcellated into these 4 distinct subregions (8 when both right and left hemispheres were measured).
The intraclass R coefficients for gray matter volume of each subregion ranged between 0.85 and 0.93. The current study describes a new highly reliable and reproducible topography-based parcellation method of the ACC into its dorsal, rostral, subcallosal and subgenual regions.
This new parcellation method provides a new means of exploring the role of the functionally and structurally distinct subregions of the ACC in schizophrenia, depression and various other brain illnesses.
前扣带回皮质（ACC）是边缘系统的重要组成部分，参与情绪、认知和执行功能。ACC在结构上有不同的亚区域，在微观和功能上都与几种主要的精神疾病有关。然而，尚未使用磁共振成像（MRI）对这些亚区域进行结构分析。我们的主要目的是开发一种基于MRI的ACC分割方法，使我们能够探索4个功能相关亚区域（背侧、喙侧、胼胝体下和膝下）中可能存在的异常。
由3名不同的评估者对14例随机选择的MR扫描进行各亚区域灰质体积和表面积的可靠性研究。我们的方法旨在保留个体大脑的地形独特性，并且基于我们使用BRAINS2软件同时可视化三维渲染大脑和三个正交平面的能力。我们制定了规则，通过手工描绘感兴趣区域（ROI）来包围背侧、喙侧、胼胝体下和膝下区域的连续灰质区域。然后将ACC分割为这4个不同的亚区域（测量左右半球时为8个）。
各亚区域灰质体积的组内R系数在0.85至0.93之间。本研究描述了一种新的、高度可靠且可重复的基于地形的ACC分割方法，可将其分为背侧、喙侧、胼胝体下和膝下区域。
这种新的分割方法为探索ACC在功能和结构上不同的亚区域在精神分裂症、抑郁症和其他各种脑部疾病中的作用提供了一种新手段。
