Novel Statistical and Machine Learning Methods with Application to Brain Imaging Data 公开

Wang, Yikai (Spring 2020)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/pc289k102?locale=zh
Published

Abstract

Brain imaging has been a breakthrough technique for understanding the functionality and organization of the human brain, serving as the fundamental basis for neuroscientific research. My dissertation is focusing on developing statistical and machine learning methods for brain imaging data. 

For the first topic, we propose a novel hierarchical independent component modeling framework for longitudinal fMRI study (L-ICA). Existing ICA methods are only applicable for cross-sectional study. In this topic, we provide the first formal statistical modeling framework extending ICA to longitudinal study. By incorporating subject-specific random effects and visit-specific covariate effects, L-ICA is able to provide more accurate estimates for brain networks and borrow information across repeated scans to increase statistical power in detecting the covariate effects. We develop a fully traceable EM algorithm and a subspace-based approximate EM algorithm which greatly reduce the computation time while retaining high accuracy. Simulation and real data results demonstrate the advantages of L-ICA.

For the second topic, we propose a novel blind signal separation (BSS) model for decomposing brain connectivity matrices. Existing BSS methods are mainly focusing on decomposing neural activity signals, instead of brain connectivities. In this topic, we propose a low-rank decomposition method with uniform sparsity (LOCUS) for brain network measures. LOCUS adopts a low-rank factorization in each latent signal for robust recovery, and also incorporates a novel penalization approach for sparsity control on latent sources. We propose a highly efficient algorithm for parameter estimation. Simulation and real data results show that LOCUS provides highly reproducible findings than existing approaches.

For the third topic, we propose a novel deep learning (DL) framework for brain network data. DL methods are often criticized for low interpretability and instability. By incorporating the existing brain subnetwork structure, we propose a DL framework with adaptively shaped graph convolutional layer (DLconv) for brain network. Specifically, the shape of convolutional filter is driven by brain subnetwork, and subnetwork-level features are propagated separately until the final layer. With the inherent structure in DLconv, we propose a robust training procedure by updating the subnetwork-specific parameters in parallel. Real data studies demonstrate the advantages of DLconv.

Table of Contents

2.1 Schematic illustration of the hierarchical modeling framework of LICA.

(A) the 1st level model of L-ICA with N subjects and K visits

where each subject/visit-specific fMRI data is decomposed into q

subject/visit-specific ICs, here q = 2 for illustration purpose. (B) the

second level model of L-ICA for one specific IC where the subject/visit specific

ICs are modelled in terms of population-level source signals,

subject specic random effects, visit effects and visit-specific covariate

effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.2 Comparison between the proposed L-ICA and the TC-GICA based approach

for estimating the population-level IC maps at baseline and the last visit

(N=20, low subject/visit-specific random variability): (A) truth, (B) L-ICA

estimates and (C) estimates from TC-GICA. Column (i) represents the IC

maps at baseline ; Column (ii) represents the IC maps at last visit; Column

(iii) represents the longitudinal trends for activated voxels (where each line

represents a voxel) in the rst IC (IC1). Results show that L-ICA provides

more accurate estimates than TC-GICA at each visit and more precisely

captures the voxel-specific longitudinal trend. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

v

2.3 Simulation results for testing covariate effects based on 1000 runs with sam-

ple size N = 40 using the proposed L-ICA method (red) and the TC-GICA

(blue) based method. We considered two types of hypothesis tests: test-

ing the time-specic covariate effect at a given visit (the 2nd visit), i.e.

H0 : 2(v) = 0 (the left column), and testing the time-varying longitudinal

covariate effects between the 1st and 2nd visit, i.e. H0 : \beta1(v) = \betat2(v) (the

right column). Panel (A) and (B) presents the type I error rates and the

statistical power, respectively. The results show that the L-ICA method

demonstrates lower type I error and higher statistical power as compared

with the TC-GICA based method. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

2.4 L-ICA estimates of subpopulation spatial source signal maps for the

DMN for the four disease group across the visits, with the mean baseline

age (73.7 year old) and are averaged between genders. All IC maps

are thresholded based on the source signal intensity level. . . . . . . 40

2.5 L-ICA estimates of subpopulation spatial source signal maps for the

medial visual network for the four disease group across the visits, with

the mean baseline age (73.7 year old) and are averaged between genders.

All IC maps are thresholded based on the source signal intensity

level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2.6 L-ICA estimates of subpopulation spatial source signal maps for the

occipital visual network for the four disease group across the visits,

with the mean baseline age (73.7 year old) and are averaged between

genders. All IC maps are thresholded based on the source signal intensity

level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2.7 L-ICA estimates of subpopulation spatial source signal maps for the

FPL for the four disease group across the visits, with the mean baseline

age (73.7 year old) and are averaged between genders. All IC maps are

thresholded based on the source signal intensity level. . . . . . . . . 43

2.8 L-ICA estimates of longitudinal trends for voxels in the DMN network

for each disease group in ADNI2 study. Results show that AD and late

MCI (LMCI) patients generally have more changes across visits and

that AD group has higher within-network variations than the other

disease groups at each visit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

2.9 L-ICA estimates of longitudinal trends for voxels in FPL and visual

networks for each disease group in ADNI2 study. Results show that

AD and LMCI patients generally have more changes across visits and

that AD group has higher within-network variations than the other

disease groups at each visit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2.10 p-values for testing group differences in DMN between AD and CN

subjects at each visit. The rst row shows the test results based on

L-ICA and the second row shows the results from the TC-GICA based

approach. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

2.11 p-values, thresholded at 0.05, for testing group differences in DMN

between EMCI and LMCI subjects at each visit. L-ICA finds between-group

differences in DMN at each visit while TC-GICA detects little

group differences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

vii

2.12 Longitudinal changes from baseline and later visits in DMN within AD,

LMCI, EMCI and CN groups. The first column shows the comparison

between year 1 versus baseline and the second column shows the comparison

between year 2 versus baseline, where the value represents the

longitudinal differences in source signal intensity for DMN voxels

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2.13 p-values, thresholded at 0.05, for longitudinal changes between baseline

and year 2 for the default mode network (DMN) among the AD group.

L-ICA nds longitudinal changes in major regions of DMN among AD

patients while TC-GICA detects little changes in DMN among these

patients. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

3.1 Preliminary findings based on PNC Study: (A) and (B) represents the av-

eraged covariance matrix and Pearson correlation matrix across 515 healthy

subjects in PNC study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.2 Four estimated latent sources based on connICA and PNC study, where

each source is further threshold to ensure sparsity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3.3 Illustration of the Node Moving algorithm until the 10th iteration for Locus

method based on a simulated dataset from the setting 1 with middle level

variance and 100 samples. The algorithm starts with a noisy estimate which

can hardly show the pattern, and after 10 iterations Xl(v)'s are grouped into

several clusters and those clusters are becoming orthogonal with each other,

resulting in a sparse and low-rank latent sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

3.4 Generated underlying true source signals of 2 settings in the simulation study 84

3.5 Estimated latent signals of 4 randomly selected simulation runs in setting

1 across all methods. The first row of each panel is a direct visualization of

estimated latent signal, and the second row of each panel is the trace plot

of the estimated latent signal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

3.6 Simulation results of latent sources for comparing Locus with other

methods across 100 simulation runs based on the first setting. The

first row represents the averaged Pearson correlation between true and

estimated latent sources. The second row represents the standard deviation

of Pearson correlation between true and estimated latent sources

in log scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

3.7 Simulation results of latent sources for comparing Locus with other

methods across 100 simulation runs based on the second setting. The

first row represents the averaged Pearson correlation between true and

estimated latent sources. The second row represents the standard deviation

of Pearson correlation between true and estimated latent sources

in log scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

3.8 Simulation results of methods' reproducibility on latent sources for

comparing Locus with other methods across 100 simulation runs based

on the first setting. The first row represents the averaged adjusted

Pearson correlation between true and estimated latent sources. The

second row represents the averaged adjusted jaccard index between

true and estimated latent sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

3.9 Simulation results of methods' reproducibility on latent sources for

comparing Locus with other methods across 100 simulation runs based

on the second setting. The first row represents the averaged adjusted

Pearson correlation between true and estimated latent sources. The

second row represents the averaged adjusted jaccard index between

true and estimated latent sources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

3.10 Estimated latent signals of 4 randomly selected simulation runs in setting

2 across all methods. The first row of each panel is a direct visualization of

estimated latent signal, and the second row of each panel is the trace plot

of the estimated latent signal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

3.11 Heatmap of six matched latent sources between Locus and connICA with

high reproducibility, where these six latent sources estimated from Locus

have a Pearson-based reproducibility higher than 0.7. . . . . . . . . . . 91

3.12 Reproducibility analysis for 18 matched latent sources from Locus and

connICA. Left is based on Pearson's correlation and right is for Jaccard

Index. It is shown that for the matched latent sources Locus tends to

have higher reproducibility compared to connICA approach. . . . . 92

3.13 Intensity plot of six matched latent sources between Locus and connICA

with high reproducibility, where these six latent sources estimated from

Locus have a Pearson-based reproducibility higher than 0.7. . . . . . . . . 93

3.14 Visualizing the top 1% brain connectivities of the 6 matched latent signals

based on Locus using BrainNetViewer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

3.15 Comparison between Locus and connICA. We selected the three most cor-

related latent sources from the 2 methods, and show the difference between

them. First row shows the scatter plot of the intensities from Locus and

connICA with a threshold at 0.08, where blue dots represent the edges only

signicant in connICA but not in Locus. In the second row, those blue

dots are visualized in the heatmap which are the edges only signicant in

connICA but not for Locus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

3.16 Two estimated latent sources based on Locus which are not identified by

connICA. These 2 latent sources have relatively high reproducibility and are

significantly associated with subjects' clinical outcomes, i.e. gender and age, 95

3.17 Visualizing the top 1% brain connectivities of the 2 estimated latent signals

from Locus which are not identified by connICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

4.1 Visualizing some highly reproducible brain functional subnetworks derived

from PNC study based on BrainNetViewer from Chapter 3. . . 99

4.2 Heatmap of some highly reproducible binary brain functional subnetwork

masks derived from PNC study from Chapter 3. . . . . . . . . . 100

4.3 A visualization of DLconv modeling framework for brain network data

analysis. This DLconv model contains a Mconv layer with 5 filters for

each subnetwork, a Mask2Score framework with 1 layer combining the

output from Mconv into subnetwork-specific output, and a final layer

combining the information from all subnetworks into the final output. 104

4.4 Model performance stability analysis across 50 initialization from DLconv,

FullNN, Mconv + FullNN. Solid line represents the average and

shadow area represents the 95% quantile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

4.5 Boxplot of subnetwork-specific weights on the last Layer of DLconv

across 50 bootstrap runs from two training strategies. . . . . . . . . . 114

4.6 Boxplot of subnetwork-specific AUC for testing dataset across 50 bootstrap

runs of DLconv model trained by SepIC strategy. . . . . . . . 114

4.7 The 5 most predictive functional brain subnetworks for gender difference

based on DLconv trained via SepIC algorithm. Subnetworks are

selected based on average weight or AUC across 50 bootstrap runs

and the visualized subnetwork-specific filters are the ones with largest

weight in mask2score layer in the best performed model across 50 runs. 115

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