
NeuroImage, Год журнала: 2025, Номер unknown, С. 121184 - 121184
Опубликована: Апрель 1, 2025
Brain age gap, the difference between estimated brain and chronological via magnetic resonance imaging, has emerged as a pivotal biomarker in detection of abnormalities. While deep learning is accurate estimating age, absence uncertainty estimation may pose risks clinical use. Moreover, current 3D models are intricate, using 2D slices hinders comprehensive dimensional data integration. Here, we introduced Spectral-normalized Neural Gaussian Process (SNGP) accompanied by 2.5D slice approach for seamless integration single network with low computational expenses, extra without added model complexity. Subsequently, compared different methods Pearson correlation coefficient, metric that helps circumvent systematic underestimation during training. SNGP shows excellent generalization on dataset 11 public datasets (N=6327), competitive predictive performance (MAE=2.95). Besides, demonstrates superior (MAE=3.47) an independent validation set (N=301). Additionally, conducted five controlled experiments to validate our method. Firstly, adjustment improved accelerated aging adolescents ADHD, 38% increase effect size after adjustment. Secondly, exhibited OOD capabilities, showing significant differences across Asian non-Asian datasets. Thirdly, DenseNet backbone was slightly better than ResNeXt, attributed DenseNet's feature reuse capability, robust set. Fourthly, site harmonization led decline performance, consistent previous studies. Finally, significantly outperformed methods, improving increasing In conclusion, present cost-effective method uncertainty, utilizing slicing enhanced showcasing promise applications.
Язык: Английский