Spatial normalization discrepancies between native and MNI152 brain template scans in gamma ventral capsulotomy patients

Abstract

In neurosurgery, spatial normalization emerged as a tool to minimize inter-subject variability and study target point locations based on standard coordinates. The Montreal Neurological Institute's 152 brain template (MNI152) has become the most widely utilized in neuroimaging studies, but has been noted to introduce partial volume effects, distortions, and increase structure size in all directions (x/y/z axes). These discrepancies question the accuracy of the MNI template, as well as its utility for studies that examine and form conclusions from group-level data. Given that surgical precision in obsessive-compulsive disorder is essential to patient outcomes, we retrospectively investigated lesion size and location in patients (n = 21) who underwent capsulotomy for intractable OCD, comparing deviations in the native scans to those in standard space. MNI measurements were significantly larger than native measurements across several structures in both coronal and axial slices, and we found that MNI transformation increases the size of many subcortical structures in a significant and proportional way for both females and males. These findings urge caution when using MNI as a reference space, as well as a stronger consideration of population-specific brain templates when examining connectivity-based networks.