Cox Simon R, Ferguson Karen J, Royle Natalie A, Shenkin Susan D, MacPherson Sarah E, MacLullich Alasdair M J, Deary Ian J, Wardlaw Joanna M
Brain Research Imaging Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK,
Brain Struct Funct. 2014 Jan;219(1):1-22. doi: 10.1007/s00429-013-0527-5. Epub 2013 Mar 10.
Manual volumetric measurement of the brain's frontal lobe and its subregions from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) is an established method for researching neural correlates of clinical disorders or cognitive functions. However, there is no consensus between methods used to identify relevant boundaries of a given region of interest (ROI) on MRIs, and those used may bear little relation to each other or the underlying structural, functional and connective architecture. This presents challenges for the analysis and synthesis of such results. We therefore performed a systematic literature review to highlight variations in the anatomical boundaries used to measure frontal regions, contextualised by up-to-date evidence from histology, hodology and neuropsychology. We searched EMBASE and MEDLINE for studies in English reporting three-dimensional boundaries for manually delineating the brain's frontal lobe or sub-regional ROIs from MRIs. Exclusion criteria were: exclusive use of co-ordinate grid systems; insufficient detail to allow method replication; publication in grey literature only. Papers were assessed on quality criteria relating to bias, reproducibility and protocol rationale. There was a large degree of variability in the three-dimensional boundaries of all regions used by the 208 eligible papers. Half of the reports did not justify their rationale for boundary selection, and each paper met on average only three quarters of quality criteria. For the frontal lobe and each subregion (frontal pole, anterior cingulate, dorsolateral, inferior-lateral, and orbitofrontal) we identified reproducible methods for a biologically plausible target ROI. It is hoped that this synthesis will guide the design of future volumetric studies of cerebral structure.
通过磁共振成像（MRI）对大脑额叶及其亚区域进行手动体积测量，是研究临床疾病或认知功能神经相关性的一种既定方法。然而，用于识别MRI上给定感兴趣区域（ROI）相关边界的方法之间尚未达成共识，而且所使用的方法可能彼此之间或与潜在的结构、功能和连接结构几乎没有关联。这给此类结果的分析和综合带来了挑战。因此，我们进行了一项系统的文献综述，以突出用于测量额叶区域的解剖边界的变化，并结合组织学、神经传导通路学和神经心理学的最新证据进行背景分析。我们在EMBASE和MEDLINE中搜索了以英文发表的研究，这些研究报告了从MRI手动描绘大脑额叶或亚区域ROI的三维边界。排除标准为：仅使用坐标网格系统；细节不足无法进行方法复制；仅发表于灰色文献。根据与偏倚、可重复性和方案原理相关的质量标准对论文进行评估。208篇符合条件的论文所使用的所有区域的三维边界存在很大程度的变异性。一半的报告没有说明其选择边界的理由，并且每篇论文平均仅满足四分之三的质量标准。对于额叶及其每个亚区域（额极、前扣带回、背外侧、下外侧和眶额叶），我们确定了针对生物学上合理的目标ROI的可重复方法。希望这一综合分析将指导未来大脑结构体积研究的设计。
