Inter-group image registration by hierarchical graph shrinkage

In this paper, we propose a novel inter-group image registration method to register different groups of images (e.g., young and elderly brains) simultaneously. Specifically, we use a hierarchical two-level graph to model the distribution of entire images on the manifold, with intra-graph representing the image distribution in each group and the inter-graph describing the relationship between two groups. Then the procedure of inter-group registration is formulated as a dynamic evolution of graph shrinkage. The advantage of our method is that the topology of entire image distribution is explored to guide the image registration. In this way, each image coordinates with its neighboring images on the manifold to deform towards the population center, by following the deformation pathway simultaneously optimized within the graph. Our proposed method has been also compared with other state-of-the-art inter-group registration methods, where our method achieves better registration results in terms of registration accuracy and robustness.