Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42492140›Full record

ArticleNeuroImage. Clinical2026

The quest for the best: manual, atlas- and spatial prior-based delineation of locus coeruleus.

Olga Dmitrichenko, Giuseppina Baldizzi, Tatjana Schmidt, Aurélie Bussy, Olivier Colliot, Antoine Lutti, Ferath Kherif, Bogdan Draganski

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in NeuroImage. Clinical, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Olga DmitrichenkoImaging Neuroscience of Ageing - inAGE laboratory, Neurology Department - Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Graduate School for Health Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Giuseppina BaldizziImaging Neuroscience of Ageing - inAGE laboratory, Neurology Department - Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Graduate School for Health Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland.
Tatjana SchmidtDepartment of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Biomedical Campus, UK.
Aurélie BussyImaging Neuroscience of Ageing - inAGE laboratory, Neurology Department - Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Olivier ColliotSorbonne Université, Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, CNRS, Inria, Inserm, AP-HP, Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière, Paris, France.
Antoine LuttiLaboratory for Neuroimaging Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Ferath KherifLaboratory for Neuroimaging Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Bogdan DraganskiImaging Neuroscience of Ageing - inAGE laboratory, Neurology Department - Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland; University Institute for Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology - Inselspital, University Hospital Bern, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Laboratory for Neuroimaging Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: bogdan.draganski@unibe.ch.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Despite advances in neuromelanin-sensitive brain imaging and a plethora of software solutions, the reliable non-invasive delineation of the locus coeruleus (LC) in the human brainstem remains challenging. We sought to evaluate the spatial accuracy and consistency of atlas- and probabilistic spatial prior-based LC delineation. We acquired neuromelanin-sensitive 3 T MRI data in healthy volunteers (n = 24; mean age 40.0 ± 16.8 years; 42% female). Manual labelling by 9 raters performed twice provided the basis for individual- and group-level comparisons, showing moderate inter-rater agreement (mean Dice = 0.7). For the atlas-based labelling, we tested seven open-access LC atlases, a consensus reference representing the atlases' overlap and the averaged manual labelling. Open-access atlases demonstrated low spatial concordance (Dice = 0.2-0.4), while the averaged manual labelling atlas had higher spatial overlap (Dice = 0.6). Probabilistic delineation using spatial priors showed the strongest voxel-wise similarity with manual labelling (r = 0.3) when the averaged manual labelling atlas was used as prior. Principal component analysis confirmed the greater spatial compactness for atlas-based labelling. Atlas-based labelling using the averaged manual labelling atlas in an extended 3 T cohort (n = 2393, mean age 58.44 ± 13.75 years) identified that tissue myelin and iron declined continuously from early adulthood, while free tissue water increased - a neurobiological trend robust to atlas choice. LC volume showed an inverted-U trajectory. Our results highlight the potential of atlas-based labelling for LC identification and demonstrate its sensitivity to physiologically grounded aging processes, suggesting that harmonised validation strategies and context-sensitive approaches can improve reliability.

Indexed as

Atlases as TopicImage Processing, Computer-AssistedLocus CoeruleusMagnetic Resonance ImagingAdultBrain MappingFemaleHumansMaleMelaninsMiddle AgedYoung AdultMelaninsneuromelaninatlasbrainstem nucleilocus coeruleusneuromelanin MRIquantitative MRIrelaxometry

Identifiers

PMID42492140
PMCPMC13427573

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.