Razavi Foroogh, Raminfard Samira, Kalantar Hormozi Hadis, Sisakhti Minoo, Batouli Seyed Amir Hossein
Neuroimaging and Analysis Group, Research Center for Molecular and Cellular Imaging, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Department of Cognitive Psychology, Institute for Cognitive Sciences Studies, Tehran, Iran.
Front Neuroinform. 2021 May 17;15:554229. doi: 10.3389/fninf.2021.554229. eCollection 2021.
Pineal gland (PG) is a structure located in the midline of the brain, and is considered as a main part of the epithalamus. There are numerous reports on the facilitatory role of this area for brain function; hormone secretion and its role in sleep cycle are the major reports. However, reports are rarely available on the direct role of this structure in brain cognition and in information processing. A suggestion for the limited number of such studies is the lack of a standard atlas for the PG; none of the available MRI templates and atlases has provided parcellations for this structure. In this study, we used the three-dimensional (3D) T1-weighted MRI data of 152 healthy young volunteers, and provided a probabilistic map of the PG in the standard Montreal Neurologic Institute (MNI) space. The methods included collecting the data using a 64-channel head coil on a 3-Tesla Prisma MRI Scanner, manual delineation of the PG by two experts, and robust template and atlas construction algorithms. This atlas is freely accessible, and we hope importing this atlas in the well-known neuroimaging software packages would help to identify other probable roles of the PG in brain function. It could also be used to study pineal cysts, for volumetric analyses, and to test any associations between the cognitive abilities of the human and the structure of the PG.
松果体（PG）是位于脑中线的一个结构，被认为是上丘脑的主要组成部分。关于该区域对脑功能的促进作用有大量报道；激素分泌及其在睡眠周期中的作用是主要报道内容。然而，关于该结构在脑认知和信息处理方面的直接作用的报道却很少。对此类研究数量有限的一个推测是缺乏松果体的标准图谱；现有的MRI模板和图谱均未提供该结构的分区。在本研究中，我们使用了152名健康年轻志愿者的三维（3D）T1加权MRI数据，并在标准的蒙特利尔神经学研究所（MNI）空间中提供了松果体的概率图谱。方法包括在3特斯拉Prisma MRI扫描仪上使用64通道头部线圈收集数据、由两名专家手动勾勒松果体，以及采用稳健的模板和图谱构建算法。该图谱可免费获取，我们希望将此图谱导入知名的神经成像软件包中有助于确定松果体在脑功能中的其他可能作用。它还可用于研究松果体囊肿、进行体积分析，以及测试人类认知能力与松果体结构之间的任何关联。
