Integrated multimodal network approach to PET and MRI based on multidimensional persistent homology

Abstract: Finding the underlying relationships among multiple imaging modalities in a coherent fashion is one of challenging problems in the multimodal analysis. In this study, we propose a novel multimodal network approach based on multidi- mensional persistent homology. In this extension of the previous threshold-free method of persistent homology, we visualize and discriminate the topological change of integrated brain networks by varying not only threshold but also mixing ratios between two different imaging modalities. Moreover, we also pro- pose an integration method for multimodal networks, called one-dimensional projection, with a specific mixing ratio between modalities. We applied the proposed methods to PET and MRI data from 21 autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children and 10 pediatric control subjects. From the results, we found that the brain networks of ASD children and controls differ significantly, with ASD showing asymmetrical changes of connected structures between PET and MRI. The integrated MRI and PET networks showed that ASD children had weaker connections than controls within the visual cortex, between dorsal and ventral parts of the temporal pole, between frontal and parietal regions, and between the left perisylvian and other brain regions. These results provide a multidimensional homological understanding of disease-related PET and MRI networks that discloses the network association with ASD.