Image and Video Processing (eess.IV)

Abstract: Purpose: In this work, we present a workflow to construct generic and robust generative image priors from magnitude-only images. The priors can then be used for regularization in reconstruction to improve image quality. Methods: The workflow begins with the preparation of training datasets from magnitude-only MR images. This dataset is then augmented with phase information and used to train generative priors of complex images. Finally, trained priors are evaluated using both linear and nonlinear reconstruction for compressed sensing parallel imaging with various undersampling schemes. Results: The results of our experiments demonstrate that priors trained on complex images outperform priors trained only on magnitude images. Additionally, a prior trained on a larger dataset exhibits higher robustness. Finally, we show that the generative priors are superior to L1 -wavelet regularization for compressed sensing parallel imaging with high undersampling. Conclusion: These findings stress the importance of incorporating phase information and leveraging large datasets to raise the performance and reliability of the generative priors for MRI reconstruction. Phase augmentation makes it possible to use existing image databases for training.

Abstract: Deep learning models usually require sufficient training data to achieve high accuracy, but obtaining labeled data can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. Here we introduce a template-based training method to train a 3D U-Net model from scratch using only one population-averaged brain MRI template and its associated segmentation label. The process incorporated visual perception augmentation to enhance the model's robustness in handling diverse image inputs and mitigating overfitting. Leveraging this approach, we trained 3D U-Net models for mouse, rat, marmoset, rhesus, and human brain MRI to achieve segmentation tasks such as skull-stripping, brain segmentation, and tissue probability mapping. This tool effectively addresses the limited availability of training data and holds significant potential for expanding deep learning applications in image analysis, providing researchers with a unified solution to train deep neural networks with only one image sample.