There is growing interest in the horse for behavioral, neuroanatomic and neuroscientific research due to its large and complex brain, cognitive abilities and long lifespan making it neurologically interesting and a potential large animal model for several neuropsychological diseases. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful neuroscientific research tool that can be performed in vivo, with adapted equine facilities, or ex-vivo in the research setting. The brain atlas is a fundamental resource for neuroimaging research, and have been created for a multitude animal models, however, none currently exist for the equine brain. In this study, we document the creation of a high-resolution stereotaxic population average brain atlas of the equine. The atlas was generated from nine unfixed equine cadaver brains imaged within 4 h of euthanasia in a 3-tesla MRI. The atlas was generated using linear and non-linear registration methods and quality assessed using signal and contrast to noise calculations. Tissue segmentation maps (TSMs) for white matter (WM), gray matter (GM) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), were generated and manually segmented anatomic priors created for multiple subcortical brain structures. The resulting atlas was validated and correlated to gross anatomical specimens and is made freely available at as an online resource for researchers (https://doi.org/10.7298/cyrs-7b51.2). The mean volume metrics for the whole brain, GM and WM for the included subjects were documented and the effect of age and laterality assessed. Alterations in brain volume in relation to age were identified, though these variables were not found to be significantly correlated. All subjects had higher whole brain, GM and WM volumes on the right side, consistent with the well documented right forebrain dominance of horses. This atlas provides an important tool for automated processing in equine and translational neuroimaging research.

中文翻译：

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马立体定向人群平均脑图谱与神经解剖相关性。

由于其庞大而复杂的大脑，认知能力和较长的寿命使其成为神经学上的有趣动物，并且可能成为多种神经心理学疾病的大型动物模型，因此人们对马的行为，神经解剖学和神经科学研究越来越感兴趣。磁共振成像（MRI）是一种功能强大的神经科学研究工具，可以在具有适当马设施的体内进行体内研究，也可以在研究环境中进行体外研究。脑图谱是进行神经影像研究的基本资源，并且已经为多种动物模型创建了，但是，马脑目前不存在。在这项研究中，我们记录了马的高分辨率立体定位人群平均脑图集的创建。该地图集由在3特斯拉MRI中安乐死4小时内成像的9个未固定马尸体大脑生成。该图集是使用线性和非线性配准方法生成的，并且使用信号和噪声与对比度的对比来评估质量。生成了白质（WM），灰质（GM）和脑脊液（CSF）的组织分割图（TSM），并为多个皮层下大脑结构手动分割了解剖先验。生成的地图集经过验证，并与大体解剖标本相关联，可作为研究人员的在线资源免费获得（https://doi.org/10.7298/cyrs-7b51.2）。记录了包括受试者在内的全脑，GM和WM的平均体积指标，并评估了年龄和偏侧性的影响。尽管未发现这些变量之间存在显着相关性，但可以确定与年龄相关的脑容量变化。所有受试者的右侧全脑，GM和WM量均较高，与文献充分记载的马的右前脑优势相一致。此地图集为马和转化神经影像研究的自动化处理提供了重要工具。