Fractals in Neuroimaging

Abstract

Several natural phenomena can be described by studying their statistical scaling patterns, hence leading to simple geometrical interpretation. In this regard, fractal geometry is a powerful tool to describe the irregular or fragmented shape of natural features, using spatial or time-domain statistical scaling laws (power-law behavior) to characterize real-world physical systems. This chapter presents some works on the usefulness of fractal features, mainly the fractal dimension and the related Hurst exponent, in the characterization and identification of pathologies and radiological features in neuroimaging, mainly, magnetic resonance imaging.

Keywords: Classification; Computed tomography; Detrended fluctuation analysis; Fractal dimension; Hurst exponent; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neuroimaging; Statistical tests.