PhD ThesisDefence by Maxime Dieudonné 25/09/2024

Wednesday 25th September 2024

At 9:00 AM, in Henri Gastaut meeting room, INT

Maxime Dieudonné

Characterisation of cortical surface development. A new method for estimating sulcal depth

Abstract:

Brain morphometry is a key area of neuroscience that aims to describe and analyse the shape of the human brain. In this context, we contribute to the study of the cerebral neocortex and its folds. Specifically, we are interested in the estimation of sulcal depth, and in particularduring the early stages of brain development (fetal period). The detailed analysis of this parameter of cortical anatomy is particularly  is particularly relevant, as it can be used to characterise the  normal brain development and its deviations (psychiatric and dementia disorders). Measurement of sulcal depth in the foetus also has prognostic value for later cognitive development.

The main contribution of this thesis is the development of an innovative  method for estimating sulcal depth, called DPF-star, which corrects for the biases of previous methods, in particular those related to variations in brain size at different ages. This method  provides a scale-invariant estimate, making it a more reliable tool for  reliable tool for developmental studies.