Kang Steven Seung-Suk, Bodenheimer Joseph, Morris Kayley, Butler Tracy
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA.
Brain Struct Funct. 2025 Aug 13;230(7):134. doi: 10.1007/s00429-025-02993-7.
The claustrum is a thin gray matter structure in each brain hemisphere, characterized by exceptionally high connectivity with nearly all brain regions. Despite extensive animal studies on its anatomy and function and growing evidence of claustral deficits in neuropsychiatric disorders, its specific roles in normal and abnormal human brain function remain largely unknown. This is primarily due to its thin and complex morphology, which limits accurate anatomical delineation and neural activity isolation in conventional in vivo neuroimaging. To facilitate future neuroimaging studies, we developed a comprehensive and reliable manual segmentation protocol based on a cellular-resolution brain atlas and high-resolution (0.7 mm isotropic) MRI data. The protocols involve detailed guidelines to delineate the entire claustrum, including the inferior parts that have not been clearly described in earlier MRI studies. Additionally, we propose a geometric method to parcellate the claustrum into three subregions (the dorsal, ventral, and temporal claustrum) along the superior-to-inferior axis. The mean bilateral claustrum volume in 10 young adults was 3307.5 mm, approximately 0.21% of total intracranial volume. Our segmentation protocol demonstrated high inter- and intra-rater reliability (ICC > 0.89, DSC > 0.85), confirming its replicability. This comprehensive and reliable manual segmentation protocol offers a robust foundation for anatomically precise neuroimaging investigations of the human claustrum.
屏状核是位于每个脑半球的一层薄灰质结构，其特点是与几乎所有脑区都有极高的连通性。尽管对其解剖结构和功能进行了广泛的动物研究，且越来越多的证据表明神经精神疾病中存在屏状核功能缺陷，但其在正常和异常人脑功能中的具体作用仍 largely 未知。这主要是由于其形态薄且复杂，限制了传统活体神经成像中准确的解剖学描绘和神经活动隔离。为便于未来的神经成像研究，我们基于细胞分辨率脑图谱和高分辨率（各向同性 0.7 毫米）MRI 数据开发了一种全面且可靠的手动分割方案。该方案包括详细指南以描绘整个屏状核，包括早期 MRI 研究中未明确描述的下部。此外，我们提出一种几何方法，沿上下轴将屏状核分成三个子区域（背侧、腹侧和颞侧屏状核）。10 名年轻成年人双侧屏状核的平均体积为 3307.5 立方毫米，约占颅内总体积的 0.21%。我们的分割方案显示出评分者间和评分者内的高可靠性（组内相关系数>0.89，骰子相似性系数>0.85），证实了其可重复性。这种全面且可靠的手动分割方案为对人类屏状核进行解剖学精确的神经成像研究提供了坚实基础。
