Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The cerebral vasculature is central to brain function, with alterations linked to numerous cerebrovascular and neurological disorders. Yet, no single imaging modality can capture the entire cerebral vascular network in humans. Instead, an array of techniques are sensitized to different spatial scales, while trading off resolution for coverage. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) typically resolves only large pial vessels, while high-resolution microscopy allows micrometer-scale vessels to be mapped over limited spatial extents. These techniques must therefore be combined to obtain a complete mapping of the cerebral angioarchitecture, which underscores the need for automatic, cross-modal vessel segmentation. Here, we introduce VesSynth, a flexible vessel segmentation framework that achieves state-of-the-art accuracy across multiple modalities and spatial resolutions (MR, optical and X-ray imaging), despite being trained entirely on synthetic data. By enabling consistent vascular mapping across scales, this framework paves the way to comprehensive investigation of cerebrovascular organization and its role in health and disease.
Authors: Chiara Mauri, Allison McKenzie, Cole Analoro, Emma Yeon, Rose Coviello, Jocelyn Mora, Etienne Chollet, Lucas Deden Binder, Ara Mahar, Stephanie Lin, Malak Benlahcen, Angelina Ream, Aliyah Jama, Itzel Garcia, Nam Tran, Priyanka Onta, Sariya Wood, Adam Willis, Alisha Mahmood, Greisi Sinoballa, Akram Malki, Kenton Tran, Vennela Malireddy, Nkiruka Onumajuru, Sonia Lakshmanan, Kaylee Hercules Landaverde, Rahama Sidow, David Wood, Binh Nguyen, Jiuver Hernandez, Maggie Bernier, Jayvi Hunter, Achraf Malki, Annabella Tum, Victoria Chavez, Zenera Shahu, Isabella Vasi, Abigail Visser, Zahra Ghaouta, Felicia Bond, Rithikaa Vigneshwaran, Emilia Kirkpatrick, Michelle Avalos Barbosa, Kathryn Rauh, Rogeny Herisse, Erendira Garcia Pallares, Xiangrui Zeng, Divya Varadarajan, Hui Wang, Caroline Magnain, Brian L. Edlow, Malte Hoffmann, Bruce Fischl, Yaël Balbastre
Language: English
Subfield: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Center for Research Resources, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1228769380, G1243485958, G1427290713, G2004043075, G2100347653, Neonatal imaging as an early marker of neurodevelopment and predictor of cognitive performance in infants exposed to HIV and ART in utero and perinatally, G323562261, G3252607384, Segmenting Brain Structures for Neurological Disorders, Neuroimaging and gut microbiome markers of development in HIV-exposed uninfected infants, G3507538372, Deep Learning for Detecting the Early Anatomical Effects of Alzheimer's Disease, Algorithms for MR and OCT-based Architectonic and Laminar Segmentation, The Human Connectome Project (HCP), G4332299656, OCTology: histology using optical coherence tomography, G5557224331, Computeserver Structural &Functional Image Analysis, MRI, Genetics & Cognitive Precursors of AD and Dementia, Open-source software for multi-scale mapping of the human brain, Developmental sensorimotor and cognitive pathways in infant cerebellum with multi-scale imaging, Software Tools for Automated Modeling of White Matter Fascicles from Diffusion MR, A Storage Area Network for Structural and Functional Image Analysis, G9000012841, G9000032172, G9000052245, G9000185783, G9000200654, Center for Multi-Scale Multi-Omic Human and non-human primate Brain Atlas, Consequences of Exposure to Repetitive Head Impacts Across the Lifespan, An Acquisition and Analysis Pipeline for Integrating MRI and Neuropathology in TBI-related Dementia and VCID, Functionally guided adult whole brain cell atlas in human and NHP, Brainstem Arousal Network in Human Consciousness: Healthy development vs SIDS, FreeSurfer Development, Maintenance, and Hardening, Fast motion-robust fetal neuroimaging with MRI, Fast and Robust Deep Learning for Medical imaging: Segmentation and Registration methods invariant to contrast and resolution, Neuroimaging and clinical Endpoints With High-dimensional analysis Of Pathological Endophenotypes in TBI (NEW-HOPE-TBI), Continuous longitudinal atlas construction for the study of brain development, BRAIN CONNECTS: Mapping Connectivity of the Human Brainstem in a Nuclear Coordinate System, BRAIN CONNECTS: The center for Large-scale Imaging of Neural Circuits (LINC), Silicon Graphics Prism Extreme 128P/1TB, G984581029
OpenAlex ID: W7150960866
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