Voxel-based morphometry

However, VBM can be sensitive to various artifacts, which include misalignment of brain structures, misclassification of tissue types, differences in folding patterns and in cortical thickness.

Many of these studies were performed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), a whole-brain technique for characterizing between groups' regional volume and tissue concentration differences from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.

Before the advent of VBM, the manual delineation of region of interest was the gold standard for measuring the volume of brain structures.

However, compared to the region of interest approach, VBM presents a large number of advantages that explain its wide popularity within the neuroimaging community.

Indeed, it is an automated and relatively easy-to–use, time-efficient, whole-brain tool that could detect the focal microstructural differences in brain anatomy in vivo between groups of individuals without requiring any a priori decision concerning which structure to evaluate.