本研究的主要目的在利用空間轉換技術來建立磁振影像為基礎的立體舌頭圖譜，做為舌頭在正常與說話障礙機轉的影響以及舌頭之形態分析研究的基礎。其目的除了能夠更進一步了解舌頭內部肌肉舌頭外觀所產生之形態變化，以及觀察不同個體間舌頭內部組織的差異性之外，亦可作為建立三維舌頭模型的依據。本研究從四十位磁振造影口腔資料庫三維舌頭影像選出四位男性和四位女性，先在各個個案上標定16特徵點(landmarks)，再利用薄板仿樣分析法 (Thin-plate spline analysis, TPS)分別為男女個案建立一個三維的舌頭圖譜。為了評估影像登錄及立體舌頭圖譜的準確度，我們依據這些影像的矢狀切面，對內部肌肉及組織進行評估。研究發現在直觀上女性個案間差異最大的地方多在舌背處靠近腭帆(velum)處，而男性個案則在舌尖、舌頭腹側處差異較大；而經過薄板仿樣分析後的三維舌頭影像在直觀上女性個案差異最大的地方在舌背側靠近會咽(epiglottis)處，男性個案則在舌背靠近舌尖處與舌腹處差異較大。最後本研究所建立的三維舌頭圖譜中，女性個案的三維舌頭圖譜和各個個案間的差異在整體上比男性個案所建構之三維舌頭圖譜的差異來得小。 The main purpose of this study is to build a MRI-based 3D tongue atlas with an established available spatial transformation technique. The 3D tongue atlas will be used as the basis for future research on tongue morphometrics and underlying physiological mechanism of normal and disordered speech production. In addition, the 3D tongue atlas can be applied to the biomechanical modeling of the human tongue. In this study, MRI data of 8 subjects (4 males and 4 females) were chosen from an orally-based MRI database of 20 male and 20 female college students without speech disorders. Sixteen landmarks were defined and selected from the 3D reconstructed MRI tongue images based on the subjects. Thin-plate spline analysis (TPS) was used to build a 3D tongue atlas for male and female subjects, respectively. Sagittal sections of the original MRI data were used to evaluate the accuracy of image registration and reconstruction. The resulted 3D tongue atlas was used for tongue morphometric study. This includes subject-to subject, subject-to-atlas, and male-to-female morphometric study. Results of this study show the major difference among female subjects before and after the TPS analysis is in the area of tongue dorsum that is close to the velum and epiglottis, respectively. This indicates we need more landmarks in the area of tongue dorsum close to the epiglottis. However, the major difference among male subjects is in the areas of tongue tip and body regardless of TPS analysis. In general, our preliminary results imply that the 3D tongue atlas of female subjects show less subject-to-subject variation than that of the male one.
