NAO (Computer-Assisted Neuroimaging) Group develops image analysis, computer vision and data mining tools to map brain architecture and model its variability. His ancestral predilection theme lies in the mysteries hidden behind the folds of the cerebral cortex. This axis of research gave rise to the conception of a real artificial neuroanatomist distributed to the community as most of the tools of the team (http://brainvisa.info). This software has been applied to tens of thousands of subjects which allows today to search in the forms of the cortex the signature of certain pathologies. The target concerns both developmental pathologies whose origin could sometimes leave a mark in the wrinkles that form in utero, that aging pathologies that cause specific patterns of atrophy manifested through the depletion of some grooves.

​The NAO group is also involved in the human connectome analysis, in close synergy with NeuroSpin's UNIRS laboratory. This research program aims at both highlighting the segregation of the brain in elementary areas and modeling connectivity via diffusion MRI imaging. High field imaging is used to highlight architectural areas and brain layers. The connectivity profiles resulting from the diffusion imaging make it possible to segment the cortical surface into homogeneous maps. The white matter is subdivided into bundles of fibers, the current effort on the mapping of U-shaped beams unknown to date because inaccessible by dissection.

The group is still involved with the UNIRS in the development of computer-based approaches to perform near real-time image analysis, for example to initially detect a specific fiber beam while the subject is in the process. the scanner, to focus the rest of the acquisitions on this beam so as to probe its microscopic structure.

The NAO finally plays a key role in the French platform of multicenter neuroimaging (http://cati-neuroimaging.com) which pools the bulk of French know-how at the service of clinical research, from the harmonization of imaging sites to the analysis of large-scale images. One of the expected goals is to have very large databases harmonized across all pathologies so as to bring out imaging biomarkers contributing to the differential diagnosis of homogeneous diseases. More than ten thousand subjects have been collected to date in 35 studies.

Team members

​Jean-François MANGIN (Team Leader) ​
Yann ​COINTEPAS ​
Denis RIVIERE
Fabrice POUPON