A web-based application for generating 2D-unfolded cortical maps to analyze the location and extent of cortical lesions following traumatic brain injury in adult rats

Abstract

Background Both the type and severity of functional impairments caused by damage to the cerebral cortex depend on the functional cortical areas and networks affected, as well as the lesion extent and type.

New method To accelerate the laborious quantitative analysis of cortical lesion location and size, we created user-friendly software that generates two-dimensional unfolded cortical maps of the lesions in adult rats. The program imports and superimposes simple user-made measurements, e.g., from histologic sections, on a template. The software then quantifies the total lesion area and the area of damage in each cortical cytoarchitechtonic region. To validate the accuracy of the software, we compared computer-generated maps with manually created unfolded maps from 32 rats with lateral fluid-percussion-induced traumatic brain injury.

Results The total area of the cortical lesions varied from 7.37 to 38.45 mm2 in the automated analysis and from 7.26 to 38.97 mm2 in the manual analysis (p > 0.05). The Pearson correlation coefficient between the automated and manual analyses was 0.998 (p < 0.001). The mean difference between the automated and manual measurements was 0.50 ± 0.69 mm2 (range 0.00–3.30 mm2). The slight differences between the analyses related to human error in positioning the measurements to the anteroposterior coordinates on the template map.

Comparison with existing methods Compared with the manual method, the automated method accurately and quickly generates unfolded cortical maps of lesioned cortical areas.

Conclusions Application provides a novel tool for accurately positioning the lesioned area on the cortical mantle and quantifying the lesion area in histologic sections or magnetic resonance images.