Using Structural Similarity and Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks for Anatomical Embedding of Cortical Folding Patterns

TL;DR

This paper introduces a self-supervised framework utilizing structural similarity and Kolmogorov-Arnold networks to embed and establish cross-subject correspondences of cortical folding patterns, specifically 3-hinge gyri, for improved brain network analysis.

Contribution

It presents a novel anatomical feature embedding method based on KAN and structural similarity, addressing the challenge of cross-subject correspondence without one-to-one mappings.

Findings

Effective in establishing robust cross-subject correspondences

Outperforms traditional registration methods in complex scenarios

Enhances brain network construction using 3HG patterns

Abstract

The 3-hinge gyrus (3HG) is a newly defined folding pattern, which is the conjunction of gyri coming from three directions in cortical folding. Many studies demonstrated that 3HGs can be reliable nodes when constructing brain networks or connectome since they simultaneously possess commonality and individuality across different individual brains and populations. However, 3HGs are identified and validated within individual spaces, making it difficult to directly serve as the brain network nodes due to the absence of cross-subject correspondence. The 3HG correspondences represent the intrinsic regulation of brain organizational architecture, traditional image-based registration methods tend to fail because individual anatomical properties need to be fully respected. To address this challenge, we propose a novel self-supervised framework for anatomical feature embedding of the 3HGs to build the correspondences among different brains. The core component of this framework is to construct a structural similarity-enhanced multi-hop feature encoding strategy based on the recently developed Kolmogorov-Arnold network (KAN) for anatomical feature embedding. Extensive experiments suggest that our approach can effectively establish robust cross-subject correspondences when no one-to-one mapping exists.