ArticleHuman brain mapping2018
A comparison of manual tracing and FreeSurfer for estimating hippocampal volume over the adult lifespan.
Article in Human brain mapping, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 57 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
57 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Subcortical shape alterations in major depressive disorder: Findings from the ENIGMA major depressive disorder working group.Human brain mapping · 2022Pooled it
- The effect of polyphenols on DNA methylation-assessed biological age attenuation: the DIRECT PLUS randomized controlled trial.BMC medicine · 2023Trial
- The effect of gadolinium-based contrast-agents on automated brain atrophy measurements by FreeSurfer in patients with multiple sclerosis.European radiology · 2022Trial
- The effect of a high-polyphenol Mediterranean diet (Green-MED) combined with physical activity on age-related brain atrophy: the Dietary Intervention Randomized Controlled Trial Polyphenols Unprocessed Study (DIRECT PLUS).The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2022Trial
- Volume-based bias in automated measurements of lateral ventricle and hippocampal volumes of mild traumatic brain injury patients.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- Frontal Lobe and Subregional Volumetric Alterations Across Alzheimer's Disease, Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Vascular Dementia: An MRI Volumetry Study.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Hippocampal volume moderates the association between cerebrospinal fluid growth-associated protein 43 and episodic memory performance in older adults.Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition · 2025Article
- Understanding the return journey: Determinants of route retracing in younger and older adults.Psychology and aging · 2025Article
- Article
- Inter-Software Consistency on the Estimation of Subcortical Structure Volume in Different Age Groups.Human brain mapping · 2024Article
- The effects of psychotherapy for anhedonia on subcortical brain volumes measured with ultra-high field MRI.Journal of affective disorders · 2024Article
- Automated brain segmentation and volumetry in dementia diagnostics: a narrative review with emphasis on FreeSurfer.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2024Review
- Serum immunoglobulins and biomarkers of dementia: a population-based study.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2023Article
- Associations of Dental Health With the Progression of Hippocampal Atrophy in Community-Dwelling Individuals: The Ohasama Study.Neurology · 2023Article
- Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy in Predementia Alzheimer's Disease: A Longitudinal Multi-Site Study Comparing Staging and A/T/N in a Clinical Research Cohort.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2023Article
- No moderating influence of education on the association between changes in hippocampus volume and memory performance in aging.Aging brain · 2023Article
- A fast and robust hippocampal subfields segmentation: HSF revealing lifespan volumetric dynamics.Frontiers in neuroinformatics · 2023Article
- Association of Plasma and Cerebrospinal Fluid Alzheimer Disease Biomarkers With Race and the Role of Genetic Ancestry, Vascular Comorbidities, and Neighborhood Factors.JAMA network open · 2022Observational
- Assessing mild cognitive impairment using object-location memory in immersive virtual environments.Hippocampus · 2022Article
- Article
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7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
MRI has become an indispensable tool for brain volumetric studies, with the hippocampus an important region of interest. Automation of the MRI segmentation process has helped advance the field by facilitating the volumetric analysis of larger cohorts and more studies. FreeSurfer has emerged as the de facto standard tool for these analyses, but studies validating its output are all based on older versions. To characterize FreeSurfer's validity, we compare several versions of FreeSurfer software with traditional hand-tracing. Using MRI images of 262 males and 402 females aged 38 to 84, we directly compare estimates of hippocampal volume from multiple versions of FreeSurfer, its hippocampal subfield routines, and our manual tracing protocol. We then use those estimates to assess asymmetry and atrophy, comparing performance of different estimators with each other and with brain atrophy measures. FreeSurfer consistently reports larger volumes than manual tracing. This difference is smaller in larger hippocampi or older people, with these biases weaker in version 6.0.0 than prior versions. All methods tested agree qualitatively on rightward asymmetry and increasing atrophy in older people. FreeSurfer saves time and money, and approximates the same atrophy measures as manual tracing, but it introduces biases that could require statistical adjustments in some studies.
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