The field of Computational Neuropsychiatry has been exploding with applications of large deformation brain mapping technology providing mechanisms for discovering neuropsychiatric disorders of many types.

The hippocampus is a region in the brain (depicted in green above) that has been implicated in schizophrenia and other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Using large deformation brain mapping tools in computational anatomy, researchers can define, visualize, and measure the volume and shape of the hippocampus. These methods allow for the precise assessment of changes in the hippocampal formation. As part of Washington University’s Healthy Aging and Senile Dementia (HASD) program, CIS researchers applied the brain mapping tools to assess the structure of the hippocampus in older human subjects depicted in the images (below left).

They compared measurements of hippocampal volume and shape in 18 subjects with early dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) with 18 healthy elderly and 15 younger control subjects. Hippocampal volume loss and shape deformities observed in subjects with DAT distinguished them from both elderly and younger control subjects. The pattern of hippocampal deformities in subjects with DAT was largely symmetric and suggested damage to the CA1 hippo-campal subfield. The pictures indicate inward deformations by cooler colors, outward deformations by warmer colors, and little deformation by a neutral green color. Hippocampal shape changes were also observed in healthy elderly subjects, which distin-guished them from healthy younger subjects (below right). These shape changes occurred in a pattern distinct from the pattern seen in DAT and were not associated with substantial volume loss. These assessments indicate that hippocampal volume and shape derived from computational anatomy large deformation brain mapping tools may be useful in distinguishing early DAT from healthy aging.