Optimization of Spatial Resolution and Image Reconstruction Parameters for the Small-Animal MetisTM PET/CT System

The aim of this study was to investigate the optimization of spatial resolution and image reconstruction parameters related to image quality in an iterative reconstruction algorithm for the small-animal MetisTM PET/CT system. We used a homemade Derenzo phantom to evaluate the image quality by visual assessment, signal-to-noise ratio, contrast, coefficient of variation, and contrast-to-noise ratio of the 0.8 mm hot rods of 8 slices in the centre of the phantom PET images. A healthy mouse study was performed to analyze the influence of optimal reconstruction parameters and Gaussian post-filter FWHM. In the phantom study, the best image quality was obtained by placing the phantom at one end, keeping the central axis parallel to X-axis of the system, selecting iterations between 30 and 40, with a reconstruction voxel of 0.314 mm and a Gaussian post-filter FWHM of 1.57 mm. The optimization of spatial resolution can reach 0.6-mm. In the animal study, it was suitable to choose a voxel size of 0.472-mm, iterations between 30 and 40, and 2.36-mm Gaussian post-filter FWHM. Our results indicate that optimal imaging conditions and reconstruction parameters are necessary to obtain high-resolution images and quantitative accuracy, especially for the high-precision identification of tiny lesions.

The off-line effect of affective touch on multisensory integration and tactile perceptual accuracy during the somatic signal detection task

Affective touch refers to the emotional and motivational facets of tactile sensation and has been linked to the activation of a specialised system of mechanosensory afferents (the CT system), that respond optimally to slow caress-like touch. Affective touch has been shown to play an important role in the building of the bodily self: the multisensory integrated global awareness of one’s own body. Here we investigated the effects of affective touch on subsequent tactile awareness and multisensory integration using the Somatic Signal Detection Task (SSDT). During the SSDT, participants were required to detect near-threshold tactile stimulation on their cheek, in the presence/absence of a concomitant light. Participants repeated the SSDT twice, before and after receiving a touch manipulation. Participants were divided into two groups: one received affective touch (CT optimal; n = 32), and the second received non-affective touch (non-CT optimal; n = 34). Levels of arousal (skin conductance levels, SCLs) and mood changes after the touch manipulation were also measured. Affective touch led to an increase in tactile accuracy, as indicated by less false reports of touch and a trend towards higher tactile sensitivity during the subsequent SSDT. Conversely, non-affective touch was found to induce a partial decrease in the correct detection of touch possibly due to a desensitization of skin mechanoreceptors. Both affective and non-affective touch induced a more positive mood and higher SCLs in participants. The increase in SCLs was greater after affective touch. We conclude that receiving affective touch enhances the sense of bodily self therefore increasing perceptual accuracy and awareness. Higher SCLs are suggested to be a possible mediator linking affective touch to a greater tactile accuracy. Clinical implications are discussed.

Vicarious Ratings of Self vs. Other-directed Social Touch in Women with and Recovered from Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is an eating pathology characterized by restricted eating, body image distortions and impaired socio-cognitive abilities. Altered responses to affective touch − a pleasant interoceptive stimulus hypothesised to involve activation of the C-Tactile (CT) system, may contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of this disorder. Here, we investigated whether third-party social touch vicarious ratings of different body sites at CT-optimal vs. non-CT optimal velocities differed in women with and recovered from AN (RAN) and healthy controls (HCs). Thirty-five HCs, 27 AN and 29 RAN provided pleasantness ratings for two different tasks designed to probe expectations of how touch is perceived by self (self-directed touch) vs. others (other-directed touch). Findings revealed that both clinical groups, compared to HCs, did not differ in their pleasantness ratings to touch for another but when evaluating touch for self, both clinical groups rated CT-optimal touch as less pleasant than HCs. These findings suggest that AN and RAN women demonstrate an atypical vicarious pleasantness response to affective touch involving self, but not others. Therefore, as atypical responses persist even after recovery, treatment interventions should focus on overcoming an impairment in differentiating between self and other affective touch experience, which could help prevent post-recovery relapsing.

Plant root PET: visualization of photosynthate translocation to roots in rice plant

Roots are essential to plants for uptake of water and nutrients. For the improvement of crop production, it is necessary to understand the elucidation of the root development and its function under the ground. Especially, photosynthate translocation from plant leaves to roots is an important physiological function that affects the root elongation, adaptation to the soil environment and nutrients uptake. To evaluate the translocation dynamics to roots, positron emission tomography (PET) and 11C tracer have been used. However, the spatial resolution is degraded at roots that develop around the peripheral area of field of view (FOV) due to parallax errors. In this study, to overcome this problem, we developed a small OpenPET prototype applying four-layer depth-of-interaction detectors. We demonstrated the imaging capability of 11C-photosynthate translocation to rice roots that develop throughout the entire PET field. We also tried to obtain structural information of roots by high-throughput X-ray computerized tomography (CT) system using the same test plant. As a result, we succeeded in visualizing the root structure that developed around the peripheral region of FOV and imaging the accumulation of 11C-photosynthate to the roots in those areas without degrading the spatial resolution. From obtained images, we also succeeded in evaluating the translocation dynamics varied by roots. The combined use of the high-throughput CT system and the OpenPET prototype was demonstrated to be appropriate for structural and functional analysis of roots.

FL-MISR: fast large-scale multi-image super-resolution for computed tomography based on multi-GPU acceleration

Multi-image super-resolution (MISR) usually outperforms single-image super-resolution (SISR) under a proper inter-image alignment by explicitly exploiting the inter-image correlation. However, the large computational demand encumbers the deployment of MISR in practice. In this work, we propose a distributed optimization framework based on data parallelism for fast large-scale MISR using multi-GPU acceleration named FL-MISR. The scaled conjugate gradient (SCG) algorithm is applied to the distributed subfunctions and the local SCG variables are communicated to synchronize the convergence rate over multi-GPU systems towards a consistent convergence. Furthermore, an inner-outer border exchange scheme is performed to obviate the border effect between neighboring GPUs. The proposed FL-MISR is applied to the computed tomography (CT) system by super-resolving the projections acquired by subpixel detector shift. The SR reconstruction is performed on the fly during the CT acquisition such that no additional computation time is introduced. FL-MISR is extensively evaluated from different aspects and experimental results demonstrate that FL-MISR effectively improves the spatial resolution of CT systems in modulation transfer function (MTF) and visual perception. Comparing to a multi-core CPU implementation, FL-MISR achieves a more than 50$$\times$$ × speedup on an off-the-shelf 4-GPU system.

Affective touch topography and body image

Recent evidence suggests that altered responses to affective touch—a pleasant interoceptive stimulus associated with activation of the C-Tactile (CT) system—may contribute to the aetiology and maintenance of mental conditions characterised by body image disturbances (e.g., Anorexia Nervosa). Here, we investigated whether tactile pleasantness and intensity differ across body sites, and if individual differences in dysmorphic appearance concerns and body and emotional awareness might be associated with touch perceptions across body sites. To this end, we measured perceived pleasantness and intensity of gentle, dynamic stroking touches applied to the palm, forearm, face, abdomen and back of 30 female participants (mean age: 25.87±1.17yrs) using CT-optimal (3 cm/s) and non-CT optimal (0.3 and 30 cm/s) stroking touch. As expected, participants rated CT-targeted touch as more pleasant compared to the two non-CT optimal stroking touch at all body sites. Regardless of stroking velocity, touch applied to the abdomen elicited the lowest pleasantness ratings. Lower levels of emotional awareness, greater levels of interoceptive sensibility and of dysmorphic concerns were associated with lower preference for CT-optimal stroking touch applied to the forearm and the back. These findings begin to elucidate the link between CT sensitivity, dysmorphic appearance concerns and body and emotional awareness, which may have implications for future research looking to inform early interventions. Addressing impaired processing of affective interoceptive stimuli, such as CT-targeted touch, may be the key to current treatment approaches available for those populations at risk of disorders characterised by body image disturbance.

Feasibility study of portable multi-energy computed tomography with photon-counting detector for preclinical and clinical applications

In this study, preclinical experiments were performed with an in-house developed prototypal photon-counting detector computed tomography (PCD CT) system. The performance of the system was compared with the conventional energy-integrating detector (EID)-based CT, concerning the basic image quality biomarkers and the respective capacities for material separation. The pre- and the post-contrast axial images of a canine brain captured by the PCD CT and EID CT systems were found to be visually similar. Multi-energy images were acquired using the PCD CT system, and machine learning-based material decomposition was performed to segment the white and gray matters for the first time in soft tissue segmentation. Furthermore, to accommodate clinical applications that require high resolution acquisitions, a small, native, high-resolution (HR) detector was implemented on the PCD CT system, and its performance was evaluated based on animal experiments. The HR acquisition mode improved the spatial resolution and delineation of the fine structures in the canine’s nasal turbinates compared to the standard mode. Clinical applications that rely on high-spatial resolution expectedly will also benefit from this resolution-enhancing function. The results demonstrate the potential impact on the brain tissue segmentation, improved detection of the liver tumors, and capacity to reconstruct high-resolution images both preclinically and clinically.

A geometric calibration approach for industrial cone-beam CT system based on low-rank phantom

Precise alignment of the system scan geometry is crucial to ensure the reconstructed image quality in the cone-beam CT system. A calibration method that depends on the local feature of ball bearings phantom and point-like markers is probably affected by local image variations. Besides, multiple projections with circular scanning are usually required by this type of method to derive misaligned parameters. In contrast to previous works, this paper proposes a method that depends on the global symmetric low-rank feature of a novel phantom, which can accurately represent the system geometrical misalignment. All the misaligned parameters of the cone-beam CT system can be estimated from a single perspective direction without circular scanning. Meanwhile, since the global low-rank feature of the phantom is utilized, the proposed method is robust to the noise. Extensive simulations and real experiments validate the accuracy and robustness of our method, which achieves better performance compared to an existing phantom-based method.

Evaluation of A Micro CT Scan System Based on Digital Image Correlation Profile of Multiple Radiographs

X-ray computed tomography system is a non-destructive testing tool which can visualize the internal structure of an object. However, the reconstruction image result can be disturbed by artefacts. The center of rotation position is a factor that needs to be controlled to avoid artefact. That is why a method to evaluate the performance of CT system is needed. The method is developed using x-ray micro-CT system and evaluated based on Digital Image Correlation. DIC measurement is based on tracking correlation function of a group of pixel which have a unique grey value from the test images and a reference image. The DIC value of multiple radiographs and the reference radiograph are calculated and then plotted by the angle of rotation to get the DIC profile value. The multiple radiographs are obtained from scanning object by simulation and experiment using CT Simulator software and x-ray Micro-CT system at Fisika Atom dan Inti FMIPA UGM laboratory. The results show that the ideal DIC profile value of radiograph image from simulation is a constant straight line for every size variation of the object. However, from the experiment, the result show deviation toward –y for every size variation of the object that indicate the shift of COR position in micro-CT system. The result also similar using center of mass profile value as comparison.