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author bshanks@bshanks.dyndns.org
date Tue Apr 21 14:50:10 2009 -0700 (16 years ago)
parents b4b79f107b2a
children e460569c21d4

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bshanks@0 1 Specific aims
bshanks@53 2 Massivenew datasets obtained with techniques such as in situ hybridization (ISH), immunohistochemistry, in situ transgenic
bshanks@53 3 reporter, microarray voxelation, and others, allow the expression levels of many genes at many locations to be compared.
bshanks@53 4 Our goal is to develop automated methods to relate spatial variation in gene expression to anatomy. We want to find marker
bshanks@53 5 genes for specific anatomical regions, and also to draw new anatomical maps based on gene expression patterns. We have
bshanks@53 6 three specific aims:
bshanks@30 7 (1) develop an algorithm to screen spatial gene expression data for combinations of marker genes which selectively target
bshanks@30 8 anatomical regions
bshanks@84 9 (2) develop an algorithm to suggest new ways of carving up a structure into anatomically distinct regions, based on
bshanks@84 10 spatial patterns in gene expression
bshanks@33 11 (3) create a 2-D “flat map” dataset of the mouse cerebral cortex that contains a flattened version of the Allen Mouse
bshanks@35 12 Brain Atlas ISH data, as well as the boundaries of cortical anatomical areas. This will involve extending the functionality of
bshanks@35 13 Caret, an existing open-source scientific imaging program. Use this dataset to validate the methods developed in (1) and (2).
bshanks@84 14 Although our particular application involves the 3D spatial distribution of gene expression, we anticipate that the methods
bshanks@84 15 developed in aims (1) and (2) will generalize to any sort of high-dimensional data over points located in a low-dimensional
bshanks@84 16 space.
bshanks@84 17 In terms of the application of the methods to cerebral cortex, aim (1) is to go from cortical areas to marker genes,
bshanks@84 18 and aim (2) is to let the gene profile define the cortical areas. In addition to validating the usefulness of the algorithms,
bshanks@84 19 the application of these methods to cortex will produce immediate benefits, because there are currently no known genetic
bshanks@84 20 markers for most cortical areas. The results of the project will support the development of new ways to selectively target
bshanks@84 21 cortical areas, and it will support the development of a method for identifying the cortical areal boundaries present in small
bshanks@84 22 tissue samples.
bshanks@53 23 All algorithms that we develop will be implemented in a GPL open-source software toolkit. The toolkit, as well as the
bshanks@30 24 machine-readable datasets developed in aim (3), will be published and freely available for others to use.
bshanks@87 25 The challenge topic
bshanks@87 26 This proposal addresses challenge topic 06-HG-101. Massive new datasets obtained with techniques such as in situ hybridiza-
bshanks@87 27 tion (ISH), immunohistochemistry, in situ transgenic reporter, microarray voxelation, and others, allow the expression levels
bshanks@87 28 of many genes at many locations to be compared. Our goal is to develop automated methods to relate spatial variation in
bshanks@87 29 gene expression to anatomy. We want to find marker genes for specific anatomical regions, and also to draw new anatomical
bshanks@87 30 maps based on gene expression patterns.
bshanks@87 31 The Challenge and Potential impact
bshanks@87 32 Now we will discuss each of our three aims in turn. For each aim, we will develop a conceptual framework for thinking
bshanks@87 33 about the task, and we will present our strategy for solving it. Next we will discuss related work. At the conclusion of each
bshanks@87 34 section, we will summarize why our strategy is different from what has been done before. At the end of this section, we will
bshanks@87 35 describe the potential impact.
bshanks@84 36 Aim 1: Given a map of regions, find genes that mark the regions
bshanks@85 37 Machine learning terminology The task of looking for marker genes for known anatomical regions means that one is
bshanks@85 38 looking for a set of genes such that, if the expression level of those genes is known, then the locations of the regions can be
bshanks@85 39 inferred.
bshanks@85 40 If we define the regions so that they cover the entire anatomical structure to be divided, we may say that we are using
bshanks@85 41 gene expression to determine to which region each voxel within the structure belongs. We call this a classification task,
bshanks@85 42 because each voxel is being assigned to a class (namely, its region). An understanding of the relationship between the
bshanks@85 43 combination of their expression levels and the locations of the regions may be expressed as a function. The input to this
bshanks@85 44 function is a voxel, along with the gene expression levels within that voxel; the output is the regional identity of the target
bshanks@85 45 voxel, that is, the region to which the target voxel belongs. We call this function a classifier. In general, the input to a
bshanks@85 46 classifier is called an instance, and the output is called a label (or a class label).
bshanks@30 47 The object of aim 1 is not to produce a single classifier, but rather to develop an automated method for determining a
bshanks@30 48 classifier for any known anatomical structure. Therefore, we seek a procedure by which a gene expression dataset may be
bshanks@85 49 analyzed in concert with an anatomical atlas in order to produce a classifier. The initial gene expression dataset used in
bshanks@85 50 the construction of the classifier is called training data. In the machine learning literature, this sort of procedure may be
bshanks@85 51 thought of as a supervised learning task, defined as a task in which the goal is to learn a mapping from instances to labels,
bshanks@85 52 and the training data consists of a set of instances (voxels) for which the labels (regions) are known.
bshanks@30 53 Each gene expression level is called a feature, and the selection of which genes1 to include is called feature selection.
bshanks@33 54 Feature selection is one component of the task of learning a classifier. Some methods for learning classifiers start out with
bshanks@33 55 a separate feature selection phase, whereas other methods combine feature selection with other aspects of training.
bshanks@30 56 One class of feature selection methods assigns some sort of score to each candidate gene. The top-ranked genes are then
bshanks@30 57 chosen. Some scoring measures can assign a score to a set of selected genes, not just to a single gene; in this case, a dynamic
bshanks@30 58 procedure may be used in which features are added and subtracted from the selected set depending on how much they raise
bshanks@30 59 the score. Such procedures are called “stepwise” or “greedy”.
bshanks@30 60 Although the classifier itself may only look at the gene expression data within each voxel before classifying that voxel, the
bshanks@85 61 algorithm which constructs the classifier may look over the entire dataset. We can categorize score-based feature selection
bshanks@85 62 methods depending on how the score of calculated. Often the score calculation consists of assigning a sub-score to each voxel,
bshanks@85 63 and then aggregating these sub-scores into a final score (the aggregation is often a sum or a sum of squares or average). If
bshanks@85 64 only information from nearby voxels is used to calculate a voxel’s sub-score, then we say it is a local scoring method. If only
bshanks@85 65 information from the voxel itself is used to calculate a voxel’s sub-score, then we say it is a pointwise scoring method.
bshanks@85 66 Our strategy for Aim 1
bshanks@85 67 Key questions when choosing a learning method are: What are the instances? What are the features? How are the features
bshanks@85 68 chosen? Here are four principles that outline our answers to these questions.
bshanks@84 69 Principle 1: Combinatorial gene expression
bshanks@84 70 It is too much to hope that every anatomical region of interest will be identified by a single gene. For example, in the
bshanks@84 71 cortex, there are some areas which are not clearly delineated by any gene included in the Allen Brain Atlas (ABA) dataset.
bshanks@84 72 However, at least some of these areas can be delineated by looking at combinations of genes (an example of an area for
bshanks@84 73 which multiple genes are necessary and sufficient is provided in Preliminary Studies, Figure 4). Therefore, each instance
bshanks@84 74 should contain multiple features (genes).
bshanks@87 75 _______
bshanks@87 76 1Strictly speaking, the features are gene expression levels, but we’ll call them genes.
bshanks@84 77 Principle 2: Only look at combinations of small numbers of genes
bshanks@84 78 When the classifier classifies a voxel, it is only allowed to look at the expression of the genes which have been selected
bshanks@84 79 as features. The more data that are available to a classifier, the better that it can do. For example, perhaps there are weak
bshanks@84 80 correlations over many genes that add up to a strong signal. So, why not include every gene as a feature? The reason is that
bshanks@84 81 we wish to employ the classifier in situations in which it is not feasible to gather data about every gene. For example, if we
bshanks@84 82 want to use the expression of marker genes as a trigger for some regionally-targeted intervention, then our intervention must
bshanks@84 83 contain a molecular mechanism to check the expression level of each marker gene before it triggers. It is currently infeasible
bshanks@84 84 to design a molecular trigger that checks the level of more than a handful of genes. Similarly, if the goal is to develop a
bshanks@84 85 procedure to do ISH on tissue samples in order to label their anatomy, then it is infeasible to label more than a few genes.
bshanks@84 86 Therefore, we must select only a few genes as features.
bshanks@63 87 The requirement to find combinations of only a small number of genes limits us from straightforwardly applying many
bshanks@63 88 of the most simple techniques from the field of supervised machine learning. In the parlance of machine learning, our task
bshanks@63 89 combines feature selection with supervised learning.
bshanks@30 90 Principle 3: Use geometry in feature selection
bshanks@30 91 When doing feature selection with score-based methods, the simplest thing to do would be to score the performance of
bshanks@30 92 each voxel by itself and then combine these scores (pointwise scoring). A more powerful approach is to also use information
bshanks@30 93 about the geometric relations between each voxel and its neighbors; this requires non-pointwise, local scoring methods. See
bshanks@84 94 Preliminary Studies, figure 3 for evidence of the complementary nature of pointwise and local scoring methods.
bshanks@30 95 Principle 4: Work in 2-D whenever possible
bshanks@30 96 There are many anatomical structures which are commonly characterized in terms of a two-dimensional manifold. When
bshanks@30 97 it is known that the structure that one is looking for is two-dimensional, the results may be improved by allowing the analysis
bshanks@33 98 algorithm to take advantage of this prior knowledge. In addition, it is easier for humans to visualize and work with 2-D
bshanks@85 99 data. Therefore, when possible, the instances should represent pixels, not voxels.
bshanks@43 100 Related work
bshanks@44 101 There is a substantial body of work on the analysis of gene expression data, most of this concerns gene expression data
bshanks@84 102 which are not fundamentally spatial2.
bshanks@43 103 As noted above, there has been much work on both supervised learning and there are many available algorithms for
bshanks@43 104 each. However, the algorithms require the scientist to provide a framework for representing the problem domain, and the
bshanks@43 105 way that this framework is set up has a large impact on performance. Creating a good framework can require creatively
bshanks@43 106 reconceptualizing the problem domain, and is not merely a mechanical “fine-tuning” of numerical parameters. For example,
bshanks@84 107 we believe that domain-specific scoring measures (such as gradient similarity, which is discussed in Preliminary Studies) may
bshanks@43 108 be necessary in order to achieve the best results in this application.
bshanks@53 109 We are aware of six existing efforts to find marker genes using spatial gene expression data using automated methods.
bshanks@85 110 [11 ] mentions the possibility of constructing a spatial region for each gene, and then, for each anatomical structure of
bshanks@53 111 interest, computing what proportion of this structure is covered by the gene’s spatial region.
bshanks@85 112 GeneAtlas[5] and EMAGE [23] allow the user to construct a search query by demarcating regions and then specifing
bshanks@53 113 either the strength of expression or the name of another gene or dataset whose expression pattern is to be matched. For the
bshanks@53 114 similiarity score (match score) between two images (in this case, the query and the gene expression images), GeneAtlas uses
bshanks@53 115 the sum of a weighted L1-norm distance between vectors whose components represent the number of cells within a pixel3
bshanks@85 116 whose expression is within four discretization levels. EMAGE uses Jaccard similarity4. Neither GeneAtlas nor EMAGE
bshanks@53 117 allow one to search for combinations of genes that define a region in concert but not separately.
bshanks@85 118 [13 ] describes AGEA, ”Anatomic Gene Expression Atlas”. AGEA has three components. Gene Finder: The user
bshanks@85 119 selects a seed voxel and the system (1) chooses a cluster which includes the seed voxel, (2) yields a list of genes which are
bshanks@85 120 overexpressed in that cluster. (note: the ABA website also contains pre-prepared lists of overexpressed genes for selected
bshanks@85 121 structures). Correlation: The user selects a seed voxel and the system then shows the user how much correlation there is
bshanks@85 122 between the gene expression profile of the seed voxel and every other voxel. Clusters: will be described later
bshanks@43 123 Gene Finder is different from our Aim 1 in at least three ways. First, Gene Finder finds only single genes, whereas we
bshanks@43 124 will also look for combinations of genes. Second, gene finder can only use overexpression as a marker, whereas we will also
bshanks@85 125 search for underexpression. Third, Gene Finder uses a simple pointwise score5, whereas we will also use geometric scores
bshanks@84 126 such as gradient similarity (described in Preliminary Studies). Figures 4, 2, and 3 in the Preliminary Studies section contains
bshanks@84 127 evidence that each of our three choices is the right one.
bshanks@87 128 _________________________________________
bshanks@87 129 2By “fundamentally spatial” we mean that there is information from a large number of spatial locations indexed by spatial coordinates; not
bshanks@87 130 just data which have only a few different locations or which is indexed by anatomical label.
bshanks@87 131 3Actually, many of these projects use quadrilaterals instead of square pixels; but we will refer to them as pixels for simplicity.
bshanks@87 132 4the number of true pixels in the intersection of the two images, divided by the number of pixels in their union.
bshanks@87 133 5“Expression energy ratio”, which captures overexpression.
bshanks@85 134 [6 ] looks at the mean expression level of genes within anatomical regions, and applies a Student’s t-test with Bonferroni
bshanks@51 135 correction to determine whether the mean expression level of a gene is significantly higher in the target region. Like AGEA,
bshanks@51 136 this is a pointwise measure (only the mean expression level per pixel is being analyzed), it is not being used to look for
bshanks@51 137 underexpression, and does not look for combinations of genes.
bshanks@85 138 [9 ] describes a technique to find combinations of marker genes to pick out an anatomical region. They use an evolutionary
bshanks@46 139 algorithm to evolve logical operators which combine boolean (thresholded) images in order to match a target image. Their
bshanks@51 140 match score is Jaccard similarity.
bshanks@84 141 In summary, there has been fruitful work on finding marker genes, but only one of the previous projects explores
bshanks@51 142 combinations of marker genes, and none of these publications compare the results obtained by using different algorithms or
bshanks@51 143 scoring methods.
bshanks@84 144 Aim 2: From gene expression data, discover a map of regions
bshanks@30 145 Machine learning terminology: clustering
bshanks@30 146 If one is given a dataset consisting merely of instances, with no class labels, then analysis of the dataset is referred to as
bshanks@30 147 unsupervised learning in the jargon of machine learning. One thing that you can do with such a dataset is to group instances
bshanks@46 148 together. A set of similar instances is called a cluster, and the activity of finding grouping the data into clusters is called
bshanks@46 149 clustering or cluster analysis.
bshanks@84 150 The task of deciding how to carve up a structure into anatomical regions can be put into these terms. The instances
bshanks@84 151 are once again voxels (or pixels) along with their associated gene expression profiles. We make the assumption that voxels
bshanks@84 152 from the same anatomical region have similar gene expression profiles, at least compared to the other regions. This means
bshanks@84 153 that clustering voxels is the same as finding potential regions; we seek a partitioning of the voxels into regions, that is, into
bshanks@84 154 clusters of voxels with similar gene expression.
bshanks@85 155 It is desirable to determine not just one set of regions, but also how these regions relate to each other. The outcome of
bshanks@85 156 clustering may be a hierarchial tree of clusters, rather than a single set of clusters which partition the voxels. This is called
bshanks@85 157 hierarchial clustering.
bshanks@85 158 Similarity scores A crucial choice when designing a clustering method is how to measure similarity, across either pairs
bshanks@85 159 of instances, or clusters, or both. There is much overlap between scoring methods for feature selection (discussed above
bshanks@85 160 under Aim 1) and scoring methods for similarity.
bshanks@85 161 Spatially contiguous clusters; image segmentation We have shown that aim 2 is a type of clustering task. In fact,
bshanks@85 162 it is a special type of clustering task because we have an additional constraint on clusters; voxels grouped together into a
bshanks@85 163 cluster must be spatially contiguous. In Preliminary Studies, we show that one can get reasonable results without enforcing
bshanks@85 164 this constraint; however, we plan to compare these results against other methods which guarantee contiguous clusters.
bshanks@85 165 Image segmentation is the task of partitioning the pixels in a digital image into clusters, usually contiguous clusters. Aim
bshanks@85 166 2 is similar to an image segmentation task. There are two main differences; in our task, there are thousands of color channels
bshanks@85 167 (one for each gene), rather than just three6. A more crucial difference is that there are various cues which are appropriate
bshanks@85 168 for detecting sharp object boundaries in a visual scene but which are not appropriate for segmenting abstract spatial data
bshanks@85 169 such as gene expression. Although many image segmentation algorithms can be expected to work well for segmenting other
bshanks@85 170 sorts of spatially arranged data, some of these algorithms are specialized for visual images.
bshanks@51 171 Dimensionality reduction In this section, we discuss reducing the length of the per-pixel gene expression feature
bshanks@51 172 vector. By “dimension”, we mean the dimension of this vector, not the spatial dimension of the underlying data.
bshanks@33 173 Unlike aim 1, there is no externally-imposed need to select only a handful of informative genes for inclusion in the
bshanks@85 174 instances. However, some clustering algorithms perform better on small numbers of features7. There are techniques which
bshanks@30 175 “summarize” a larger number of features using a smaller number of features; these techniques go by the name of feature
bshanks@30 176 extraction or dimensionality reduction. The small set of features that such a technique yields is called the reduced feature
bshanks@85 177 set. Note that the features in the reduced feature set do not necessarily correspond to genes; each feature in the reduced set
bshanks@85 178 may be any function of the set of gene expression levels.
bshanks@85 179 Clustering genes rather than voxels Although the ultimate goal is to cluster the instances (voxels or pixels), one
bshanks@85 180 strategy to achieve this goal is to first cluster the features (genes). There are two ways that clusters of genes could be used.
bshanks@30 181 Gene clusters could be used as part of dimensionality reduction: rather than have one feature for each gene, we could
bshanks@30 182 have one reduced feature for each gene cluster.
bshanks@87 183 __
bshanks@87 184 6There are imaging tasks which use more than three colors, for example multispectral imaging and hyperspectral imaging, which are often
bshanks@87 185 used to process satellite imagery.
bshanks@87 186 7First, because the number of features in the reduced dataset is less than in the original dataset, the running time of clustering algorithms
bshanks@87 187 may be much less. Second, it is thought that some clustering algorithms may give better results on reduced data.
bshanks@30 188 Gene clusters could also be used to directly yield a clustering on instances. This is because many genes have an expression
bshanks@87 189 patternwhich seems to pick out a single, spatially continguous region. Therefore, it seems likely that an anatomically
bshanks@85 190 interesting region will have multiple genes which each individually pick it out8. This suggests the following procedure:
bshanks@42 191 cluster together genes which pick out similar regions, and then to use the more popular common regions as the final clusters.
bshanks@84 192 In Preliminary Studies, Figure 7, we show that a number of anatomically recognized cortical regions, as well as some
bshanks@84 193 “superregions” formed by lumping together a few regions, are associated with gene clusters in this fashion.
bshanks@51 194 The task of clustering both the instances and the features is called co-clustering, and there are a number of co-clustering
bshanks@51 195 algorithms.
bshanks@43 196 Related work
bshanks@85 197 Some researchers have attempted to parcellate cortex on the basis of non-gene expression data. For example, [15], [2], [16],
bshanks@85 198 and [1 ] associate spots on the cortex with the radial profile9 of response to some stain ([10] uses MRI), extract features from
bshanks@85 199 this profile, and then use similarity between surface pixels to cluster. Features used include statistical moments, wavelets,
bshanks@85 200 and the excess mass functional. Some of these features are motivated by the presence of tangential lines of stain intensity
bshanks@85 201 which correspond to laminar structure. Some methods use standard clustering procedures, whereas others make use of the
bshanks@85 202 spatial nature of the data to look for sudden transitions, which are identified as areal borders.
bshanks@85 203 [20 ] describes an analysis of the anatomy of the hippocampus using the ABA dataset. In addition to manual analysis,
bshanks@43 204 two clustering methods were employed, a modified Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NNMF), and a hierarchial recursive
bshanks@44 205 bifurcation clustering scheme based on correlation as the similarity score. The paper yielded impressive results, proving
bshanks@85 206 the usefulness of computational genomic anatomy. We have run NNMF on the cortical dataset10 and while the results are
bshanks@84 207 promising, they also demonstrate that NNMF is not necessarily the best dimensionality reduction method for this application
bshanks@84 208 (see Preliminary Studies, Figure 6).
bshanks@85 209 AGEA[13] includes a preset hierarchial clustering of voxels based on a recursive bifurcation algorithm with correlation
bshanks@85 210 as the similarity metric. EMAGE[23] allows the user to select a dataset from among a large number of alternatives, or by
bshanks@53 211 running a search query, and then to cluster the genes within that dataset. EMAGE clusters via hierarchial complete linkage
bshanks@53 212 clustering with un-centred correlation as the similarity score.
bshanks@85 213 [6 ] clustered genes, starting out by selecting 135 genes out of 20,000 which had high variance over voxels and which were
bshanks@53 214 highly correlated with many other genes. They computed the matrix of (rank) correlations between pairs of these genes, and
bshanks@53 215 ordered the rows of this matrix as follows: “the first row of the matrix was chosen to show the strongest contrast between
bshanks@53 216 the highest and lowest correlation coefficient for that row. The remaining rows were then arranged in order of decreasing
bshanks@53 217 similarity using a least squares metric”. The resulting matrix showed four clusters. For each cluster, prototypical spatial
bshanks@53 218 expression patterns were created by averaging the genes in the cluster. The prototypes were analyzed manually, without
bshanks@85 219 clustering voxels.
bshanks@85 220 [9 ] applies their technique for finding combinations of marker genes for the purpose of clustering genes around a “seed
bshanks@85 221 gene”. They do this by using the pattern of expression of the seed gene as the target image, and then searching for other
bshanks@85 222 genes which can be combined to reproduce this pattern. Other genes which are found are considered to be related to the
bshanks@85 223 seed. The same team also describes a method[22] for finding “association rules” such as, “if this voxel is expressed in by
bshanks@85 224 any gene, then that voxel is probably also expressed in by the same gene”. This could be useful as part of a procedure for
bshanks@85 225 clustering voxels.
bshanks@46 226 In summary, although these projects obtained clusterings, there has not been much comparison between different algo-
bshanks@85 227 rithms or scoring methods, so it is likely that the best clustering method for this application has not yet been found. The
bshanks@85 228 projects using gene expression on cortex did not attempt to make use of the radial profile of gene expression. Also, none of
bshanks@85 229 these projects did a separate dimensionality reduction step before clustering pixels, none tried to cluster genes first in order
bshanks@85 230 to guide automated clustering of pixels into spatial regions, and none used co-clustering algorithms.
bshanks@85 231 Aim 3: apply the methods developed to the cerebral cortex
bshanks@30 232 Background
bshanks@84 233 The cortex is divided into areas and layers. Because of the cortical columnar organization, the parcellation of the cortex
bshanks@84 234 into areas can be drawn as a 2-D map on the surface of the cortex. In the third dimension, the boundaries between the
bshanks@87 235 _________________________________________
bshanks@87 236 8This would seem to contradict our finding in aim 1 that some cortical areas are combinatorially coded by multiple genes. However, it is
bshanks@87 237 possible that the currently accepted cortical maps divide the cortex into regions which are unnatural from the point of view of gene expression;
bshanks@87 238 perhaps there is some other way to map the cortex for which each region can be identified by single genes. Another possibility is that, although
bshanks@87 239 the cluster prototype fits an anatomical region, the individual genes are each somewhat different from the prototype.
bshanks@87 240 9A radial profile is a profile along a line perpendicular to the cortical surface.
bshanks@87 241 10We ran “vanilla” NNMF, whereas the paper under discussion used a modified method. Their main modification consisted of adding a soft
bshanks@87 242 spatial contiguity constraint. However, on our dataset, NNMF naturally produced spatially contiguous clusters, so no additional constraint was
bshanks@87 243 needed. The paper under discussion also mentions that they tried a hierarchial variant of NNMF, which we have not yet tried.
bshanks@84 244 areas continue downwards into the cortical depth, perpendicular to the surface. The layer boundaries run parallel to the
bshanks@87 245 surface.One can picture an area of the cortex as a slice of a six-layered cake11.
bshanks@85 246 It is known that different cortical areas have distinct roles in both normal functioning and in disease processes, yet there
bshanks@85 247 are no known marker genes for most cortical areas. When it is necessary to divide a tissue sample into cortical areas, this is
bshanks@85 248 a manual process that requires a skilled human to combine multiple visual cues and interpret them in the context of their
bshanks@85 249 approximate location upon the cortical surface.
bshanks@33 250 Even the questions of how many areas should be recognized in cortex, and what their arrangement is, are still not
bshanks@53 251 completely settled. A proposed division of the cortex into areas is called a cortical map. In the rodent, the lack of a single
bshanks@85 252 agreed-upon map can be seen by contrasting the recent maps given by Swanson[19] on the one hand, and Paxinos and
bshanks@85 253 Franklin[14] on the other. While the maps are certainly very similar in their general arrangement, significant differences
bshanks@85 254 remain.
bshanks@36 255 The Allen Mouse Brain Atlas dataset
bshanks@84 256 The Allen Mouse Brain Atlas (ABA) data were produced by doing in-situ hybridization on slices of male, 56-day-old
bshanks@36 257 C57BL/6J mouse brains. Pictures were taken of the processed slice, and these pictures were semi-automatically analyzed
bshanks@85 258 to create a digital measurement of gene expression levels at each location in each slice. Per slice, cellular spatial resolution
bshanks@85 259 is achieved. Using this method, a single physical slice can only be used to measure one single gene; many different mouse
bshanks@85 260 brains were needed in order to measure the expression of many genes.
bshanks@85 261 An automated nonlinear alignment procedure located the 2D data from the various slices in a single 3D coordinate
bshanks@36 262 system. In the final 3D coordinate system, voxels are cubes with 200 microns on a side. There are 67x41x58 = 159,326
bshanks@85 263 voxels in the 3D coordinate system, of which 51,533 are in the brain[13].
bshanks@85 264 Mus musculus is thought to contain about 22,000 protein-coding genes[25]. The ABA contains data on about 20,000
bshanks@85 265 genes in sagittal sections, out of which over 4,000 genes are also measured in coronal sections. Our dataset is derived from
bshanks@85 266 only the coronal subset of the ABA12.
bshanks@85 267 The ABA is not the only large public spatial gene expression dataset13. With the exception of the ABA, GenePaint, and
bshanks@85 268 EMAGE, most of the other resources have not (yet) extracted the expression intensity from the ISH images and registered
bshanks@85 269 the results into a single 3-D space, and to our knowledge only ABA and EMAGE make this form of data available for public
bshanks@85 270 download from the website14. Many of these resources focus on developmental gene expression.
bshanks@63 271 Related work
bshanks@85 272 [13 ] describes the application of AGEA to the cortex. The paper describes interesting results on the structure of correlations
bshanks@63 273 between voxel gene expression profiles within a handful of cortical areas. However, this sort of analysis is not related to either
bshanks@46 274 of our aims, as it neither finds marker genes, nor does it suggest a cortical map based on gene expression data. Neither of
bshanks@46 275 the other components of AGEA can be applied to cortical areas; AGEA’s Gene Finder cannot be used to find marker genes
bshanks@85 276 for the cortical areas; and AGEA’s hierarchial clustering does not produce clusters corresponding to the cortical areas15.
bshanks@46 277 In summary, for all three aims, (a) only one of the previous projects explores combinations of marker genes, (b) there has
bshanks@43 278 been almost no comparison of different algorithms or scoring methods, and (c) there has been no work on computationally
bshanks@43 279 finding marker genes for cortical areas, or on finding a hierarchial clustering that will yield a map of cortical areas de novo
bshanks@43 280 from gene expression data.
bshanks@53 281 Our project is guided by a concrete application with a well-specified criterion of success (how well we can find marker
bshanks@53 282 genes for / reproduce the layout of cortical areas), which will provide a solid basis for comparing different methods.
bshanks@93 283 Significance
bshanks@93 284 ________________________
bshanks@93 285 11Outside of isocortex, the number of layers varies.
bshanks@87 286 12The sagittal data do not cover the entire cortex, and also have greater registration error[13]. Genes were selected by the Allen Institute for
bshanks@85 287 coronal sectioning based on, “classes of known neuroscientific interest... or through post hoc identification of a marked non-ubiquitous expression
bshanks@85 288 pattern”[13].
bshanks@85 289 13Other such resources include GENSAT[8], GenePaint[24], its sister project GeneAtlas[5], BGEM[12], EMAGE[23], EurExpress (http://www.
bshanks@85 290 eurexpress.org/ee/; EurExpress data are also entered into EMAGE), EADHB (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ihg/EADHB/database/EADHB_database.
bshanks@85 291 html), MAMEP (http://mamep.molgen.mpg.de/index.php), Xenbase (http://xenbase.org/), ZFIN[18], Aniseed (http://aniseed-ibdm.
bshanks@85 292 univ-mrs.fr/), VisiGene (http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgVisiGene ; includes data from some of the other listed data sources), GEISHA[4],
bshanks@85 293 Fruitfly.org[21], COMPARE (http://compare.ibdml.univ-mrs.fr/), GXD[17], GEO[3] (GXD and GEO contain spatial data but also non-spatial
bshanks@85 294 data. All GXD spatial data are also in EMAGE.)
bshanks@85 295 14without prior offline registration
bshanks@85 296 15In both cases, the cause is that pairwise correlations between the gene expression of voxels in different areas but the same layer are often stronger
bshanks@85 297 than pairwise correlations between the gene expression of voxels in different layers but the same area. Therefore, a pairwise voxel correlation
bshanks@85 298 clustering algorithm will tend to create clusters representing cortical layers, not areas (there may be clusters which presumably correspond to the
bshanks@85 299 intersection of a layer and an area, but since one area will have many layer-area intersection clusters, further work is needed to make sense of
bshanks@85 300 these). The reason that Gene Finder cannot the find marker genes for cortical areas is that, although the user chooses a seed voxel, Gene Finder
bshanks@85 301 chooses the ROI for which genes will be found, and it creates that ROI by (pairwise voxel correlation) clustering around the seed.
bshanks@92 302
bshanks@85 303
bshanks@85 304
bshanks@85 305 Figure 1: Top row: Genes Nfic and
bshanks@85 306 A930001M12Rik are the most correlated
bshanks@85 307 with area SS (somatosensory cortex). Bot-
bshanks@85 308 tom row: Genes C130038G02Rik and
bshanks@85 309 Cacna1i are those with the best fit using
bshanks@85 310 logistic regression. Within each picture, the
bshanks@85 311 vertical axis roughly corresponds to anterior
bshanks@85 312 at the top and posterior at the bottom, and
bshanks@85 313 the horizontal axis roughly corresponds to
bshanks@85 314 medial at the left and lateral at the right.
bshanks@85 315 The red outline is the boundary of region
bshanks@85 316 SS. Pixels are colored according to correla-
bshanks@85 317 tion, with red meaning high correlation and
bshanks@93 318 blue meaning low. The method developed in aim (1) will be applied to each cortical area to find
bshanks@93 319 a set of marker genes such that the combinatorial expression pattern of those
bshanks@93 320 genes uniquely picks out the target area. Finding marker genes will be useful
bshanks@93 321 for drug discovery as well as for experimentation because marker genes can be
bshanks@93 322 used to design interventions which selectively target individual cortical areas.
bshanks@93 323 The application of the marker gene finding algorithm to the cortex will
bshanks@93 324 also support the development of new neuroanatomical methods. In addition
bshanks@93 325 to finding markers for each individual cortical areas, we will find a small panel
bshanks@93 326 of genes that can find many of the areal boundaries at once. This panel of
bshanks@93 327 marker genes will allow the development of an ISH protocol that will allow
bshanks@93 328 experimenters to more easily identify which anatomical areas are present in
bshanks@93 329 small samples of cortex.
bshanks@93 330 The method developed in aim (2) will provide a genoarchitectonic viewpoint
bshanks@93 331 that will contribute to the creation of a better map. The development of
bshanks@93 332 present-day cortical maps was driven by the application of histological stains.
bshanks@93 333 If a different set of stains had been available which identified a different set of
bshanks@93 334 features, then today’s cortical maps may have come out differently. It is likely
bshanks@93 335 that there are many repeated, salient spatial patterns in the gene expression
bshanks@93 336 which have not yet been captured by any stain. Therefore, cortical anatomy
bshanks@93 337 needs to incorporate what we can learn from looking at the patterns of gene
bshanks@93 338 expression.
bshanks@93 339 While we do not here propose to analyze human gene expression data, it is
bshanks@93 340 conceivable that the methods we propose to develop could be used to suggest
bshanks@93 341 modifications to the human cortical map as well. In fact, the methods we
bshanks@93 342 will develop will be applicable to other datasets beyond the brain. We will
bshanks@93 343 provide an open-source toolbox to allow other researchers to easily use our
bshanks@93 344 methods. With these methods, researchers with gene expression for any area
bshanks@93 345 of the body will be able to efficiently find marker genes for anatomical regions,
bshanks@93 346 or to use gene expression to discover new anatomical patterning. As described above, marker genes have a variety of uses in
bshanks@93 347 the development of drugs and experimental manipulations, and in the anatomical characterization of tissue samples. The
bshanks@93 348 discovery of new ways to carve up anatomical structures into regions may lead to the discovery of new anatomical subregions
bshanks@93 349 in various structures, which will widely impact all areas of biology.
bshanks@75 350
bshanks@78 351 Figure 2: Gene Pitx2
bshanks@75 352 is selectively underex-
bshanks@93 353 pressed in area SS. Although our particular application involves the 3D spatial distribution of gene expression, we
bshanks@93 354 anticipate that the methods developed in aims (1) and (2) will not be limited to gene expression
bshanks@93 355 data, but rather will generalize to any sort of high-dimensional data over points located in a
bshanks@93 356 low-dimensional space.
bshanks@93 357 The approach: Preliminary Studies
bshanks@93 358 Format conversion between SEV, MATLAB, NIFTI
bshanks@93 359 We have created software to (politely) download all of the SEV files16 from the Allen Institute
bshanks@93 360 website. We have also created software to convert between the SEV, MATLAB, and NIFTI file
bshanks@93 361 formats, as well as some of Caret’s file formats.
bshanks@93 362 Flatmap of cortex
bshanks@93 363 We downloaded the ABA data and applied a mask to select only those voxels which belong to
bshanks@93 364 cerebral cortex. We divided the cortex into hemispheres.
bshanks@93 365 Using Caret[7], we created a mesh representation of the surface of the selected voxels. For each gene, for each node of
bshanks@93 366 the mesh, we calculated an average of the gene expression of the voxels “underneath” that mesh node. We then flattened
bshanks@93 367 the cortex, creating a two-dimensional mesh.
bshanks@93 368 We sampled the nodes of the irregular, flat mesh in order to create a regular grid of pixel values. We converted this grid
bshanks@93 369 into a MATLAB matrix.
bshanks@93 370 We manually traced the boundaries of each of 49 cortical areas from the ABA coronal reference atlas slides. We then
bshanks@93 371 converted these manual traces into Caret-format regional boundary data on the mesh surface. We projected the regions
bshanks@93 372 onto the 2-d mesh, and then onto the grid, and then we converted the region data into MATLAB format.
bshanks@93 373 _________________________________________
bshanks@93 374 16SEV is a sparse format for spatial data. It is the format in which the ABA data is made available.
bshanks@93 375 At this point, the data are in the form of a number of 2-D matrices, all in registration, with the matrix entries representing
bshanks@93 376 a grid of points (pixels) over the cortical surface:
bshanks@93 377 ∙A 2-D matrix whose entries represent the regional label associated with each surface pixel
bshanks@93 378 ∙For each gene, a 2-D matrix whose entries represent the average expression level underneath each surface pixel
bshanks@85 379
bshanks@85 380
bshanks@85 381 Figure 3: The top row shows the two genes
bshanks@85 382 which (individually) best predict area AUD,
bshanks@85 383 according to logistic regression. The bot-
bshanks@85 384 tom row shows the two genes which (indi-
bshanks@85 385 vidually) best match area AUD, according
bshanks@85 386 to gradient similarity. From left to right and
bshanks@85 387 top to bottom, the genes are Ssr1, Efcbp1,
bshanks@93 388 Ptk7, and Aph1a. We created a normalized version of the gene expression data by subtracting
bshanks@93 389 each gene’s mean expression level (over all surface pixels) and dividing the
bshanks@93 390 expression level of each gene by its standard deviation.
bshanks@93 391 The features and the target area are both functions on the surface pix-
bshanks@93 392 els. They can be referred to as scalar fields over the space of surface pixels;
bshanks@93 393 alternately, they can be thought of as images which can be displayed on the
bshanks@93 394 flatmapped surface.
bshanks@93 395 To move beyond a single average expression level for each surface pixel, we
bshanks@93 396 plan to create a separate matrix for each cortical layer to represent the average
bshanks@93 397 expression level within that layer. Cortical layers are found at different depths
bshanks@93 398 in different parts of the cortex. In preparation for extracting the layer-specific
bshanks@93 399 datasets, we have extended Caret with routines that allow the depth of the
bshanks@93 400 ROI for volume-to-surface projection to vary.
bshanks@93 401 In the Research Plan, we describe how we will automatically locate the
bshanks@93 402 layer depths. For validation, we have manually demarcated the depth of the
bshanks@93 403 outer boundary of cortical layer 5 throughout the cortex.
bshanks@93 404 Feature selection and scoring methods
bshanks@93 405 Underexpression of a gene can serve as a marker Underexpression of a
bshanks@93 406 gene can sometimes serve as a marker. See, for example, Figure 2.
bshanks@93 407 Correlation Recall that the instances are surface pixels, and consider the
bshanks@93 408 problem of attempting to classify each instance as either a member of a partic-
bshanks@93 409 ular anatomical area, or not. The target area can be represented as a boolean
bshanks@93 410 mask over the surface pixels.
bshanks@93 411 One class of feature selection scoring methods contains methods which calculate some sort of “match” between each gene
bshanks@93 412 image and the target image. Those genes which match the best are good candidates for features.
bshanks@93 413 One of the simplest methods in this class is to use correlation as the match score. We calculated the correlation between
bshanks@93 414 each gene and each cortical area. The top row of Figure 1 shows the three genes most correlated with area SS.
bshanks@93 415
bshanks@93 416
bshanks@93 417 Figure 4: Upper left: wwc1. Upper right:
bshanks@93 418 mtif2. Lower left: wwc1 + mtif2 (each
bshanks@93 419 pixel’s value on the lower left is the sum of
bshanks@93 420 the corresponding pixels in the upper row). Conditional entropy An information-theoretic scoring method is to find
bshanks@85 421 features such that, if the features (gene expression levels) are known, uncer-
bshanks@85 422 tainty about the target (the regional identity) is reduced. Entropy measures
bshanks@85 423 uncertainty, so what we want is to find features such that the conditional dis-
bshanks@85 424 tribution of the target has minimal entropy. The distribution to which we are
bshanks@85 425 referring is the probability distribution over the population of surface pixels.
bshanks@85 426 The simplest way to use information theory is on discrete data, so we
bshanks@85 427 discretized our gene expression data by creating, for each gene, five thresholded
bshanks@85 428 boolean masks of the gene data. For each gene, we created a boolean mask of
bshanks@85 429 its expression levels using each of these thresholds: the mean of that gene, the
bshanks@85 430 mean minus one standard deviation, the mean minus two standard deviations,
bshanks@85 431 the mean plus one standard deviation, the mean plus two standard deviations.
bshanks@85 432 Now, for each region, we created and ran a forward stepwise procedure
bshanks@85 433 which attempted to find pairs of gene expression boolean masks such that the
bshanks@85 434 conditional entropy of the target area’s boolean mask, conditioned upon the
bshanks@85 435 pair of gene expression boolean masks, is minimized.
bshanks@85 436 This finds pairs of genes which are most informative (at least at these dis-
bshanks@85 437 cretization thresholds) relative to the question, “Is this surface pixel a member
bshanks@85 438 of the target area?”. Its advantage over linear methods such as logistic regres-
bshanks@93 439 sion is that it takes account of arbitrarily nonlinear relationships; for example, if the XOR of two variables predicts the
bshanks@93 440 target, conditional entropy would notice, whereas linear methods would not.
bshanks@93 441
bshanks@85 442
bshanks@85 443
bshanks@85 444
bshanks@85 445
bshanks@85 446 Figure 5: From left to right and top
bshanks@85 447 to bottom, single genes which roughly
bshanks@85 448 identify areas SS (somatosensory primary
bshanks@85 449 + supplemental), SSs (supplemental so-
bshanks@85 450 matosensory), PIR (piriform), FRP (frontal
bshanks@85 451 pole), RSP (retrosplenial), COApm (Corti-
bshanks@85 452 cal amygdalar, posterior part, medial zone).
bshanks@85 453 Grouping some areas together, we have
bshanks@85 454 also found genes to identify the groups
bshanks@85 455 ACA+PL+ILA+DP+ORB+MO (anterior
bshanks@85 456 cingulate, prelimbic, infralimbic, dorsal pe-
bshanks@85 457 duncular, orbital, motor), posterior and lat-
bshanks@85 458 eral visual (VISpm, VISpl, VISI, VISp; pos-
bshanks@85 459 teromedial, posterolateral, lateral, and pri-
bshanks@85 460 mary visual; the posterior and lateral vi-
bshanks@85 461 sual area is distinguished from its neigh-
bshanks@85 462 bors, but not from the entire rest of the
bshanks@85 463 cortex). The genes are Pitx2, Aldh1a2,
bshanks@85 464 Ppfibp1, Slco1a5, Tshz2, Trhr, Col12a1,
bshanks@93 465 Ets1. Gradient similarity We noticed that the previous two scoring methods,
bshanks@93 466 which are pointwise, often found genes whose pattern of expression did not
bshanks@93 467 look similar in shape to the target region. For this reason we designed a
bshanks@93 468 non-pointwise local scoring method to detect when a gene had a pattern of
bshanks@93 469 expression which looked like it had a boundary whose shape is similar to the
bshanks@93 470 shape of the target region. We call this scoring method “gradient similarity”.
bshanks@93 471 One might say that gradient similarity attempts to measure how much the
bshanks@93 472 border of the area of gene expression and the border of the target region over-
bshanks@93 473 lap. However, since gene expression falls off continuously rather than jumping
bshanks@93 474 from its maximum value to zero, the spatial pattern of a gene’s expression often
bshanks@93 475 does not have a discrete border. Therefore, instead of looking for a discrete
bshanks@93 476 border, we look for large gradients. Gradient similarity is a symmetric function
bshanks@93 477 over two images (i.e. two scalar fields). It is is high to the extent that matching
bshanks@93 478 pixels which have large values and large gradients also have gradients which
bshanks@93 479 are oriented in a similar direction. The formula is:
bshanks@93 480 ∑
bshanks@93 481 pixel<img src="cmsy7-32.png" alt="&#x2208;" />pixels cos(abs(&#x2220;&#x2207;1 -&#x2220;&#x2207;2)) &#x22C5;|&#x2207;1| + |&#x2207;2|
bshanks@93 482 2 &#x22C5; pixel_value1 + pixel_value2
bshanks@93 483 2
bshanks@93 484 where &#x2207;1 and &#x2207;2 are the gradient vectors of the two images at the current
bshanks@93 485 pixel; &#x2220;&#x2207;i is the angle of the gradient of image i at the current pixel; |&#x2207;i| is
bshanks@93 486 the magnitude of the gradient of image i at the current pixel; and pixel_valuei
bshanks@93 487 is the value of the current pixel in image i.
bshanks@93 488 The intuition is that we want to see if the borders of the pattern in the
bshanks@93 489 two images are similar; if the borders are similar, then both images will have
bshanks@93 490 corresponding pixels with large gradients (because this is a border) which are
bshanks@93 491 oriented in a similar direction (because the borders are similar).
bshanks@93 492 Most of the genes in Figure 5 were identified via gradient similarity.
bshanks@93 493 Gradient similarity provides information complementary to cor-
bshanks@93 494 relation
bshanks@93 495 To show that gradient similarity can provide useful information that cannot
bshanks@93 496 be detected via pointwise analyses, consider Fig. 3. The top row of Fig. 3
bshanks@93 497 displays the 3 genes which most match area AUD, according to a pointwise
bshanks@93 498 method17. The bottom row displays the 3 genes which most match AUD ac-
bshanks@93 499 cording to a method which considers local geometry18 The pointwise method
bshanks@93 500 in the top row identifies genes which express more strongly in AUD than out-
bshanks@93 501 side of it; its weakness is that this includes many areas which don&#8217;t have a
bshanks@93 502 salient border matching the areal border. The geometric method identifies
bshanks@93 503 genes whose salient expression border seems to partially line up with the bor-
bshanks@93 504 der of AUD; its weakness is that this includes genes which don&#8217;t express over
bshanks@93 505 the entire area. Genes which have high rankings using both pointwise and bor-
bshanks@93 506 der criteria, such as Aph1a in the example, may be particularly good markers.
bshanks@93 507 None of these genes are, individually, a perfect marker for AUD; we deliberately
bshanks@93 508 chose a &#8220;difficult&#8221; area in order to better contrast pointwise with geometric
bshanks@93 509 methods.
bshanks@93 510 Areas which can be identified by single genes Using gradient simi-
bshanks@93 511 larity, we have already found single genes which roughly identify some areas and groupings of areas. For each of these areas,
bshanks@93 512 an example of a gene which roughly identifies it is shown in Figure 5. We have not yet cross-verified these genes in other
bshanks@93 513 atlases.
bshanks@93 514 In addition, there are a number of areas which are almost identified by single genes: COAa+NLOT (anterior part of
bshanks@93 515 cortical amygdalar area, nucleus of the lateral olfactory tract), ENT (entorhinal), ACAv (ventral anterior cingulate), VIS
bshanks@93 516 (visual), AUD (auditory).
bshanks@93 517 These results validate our expectation that the ABA dataset can be exploited to find marker genes for many cortical
bshanks@93 518 areas, while also validating the relevancy of our new scoring method, gradient similarity.
bshanks@92 519 _________________________________________
bshanks@93 520 17For each gene, a logistic regression in which the response variable was whether or not a surface pixel was within area AUD, and the predictor
bshanks@93 521 variable was the value of the expression of the gene underneath that pixel. The resulting scores were used to rank the genes in terms of how well
bshanks@93 522 they predict area AUD.
bshanks@93 523 18For each gene the gradient similarity between (a) a map of the expression of each gene on the cortical surface and (b) the shape of area AUD,
bshanks@93 524 was calculated, and this was used to rank the genes.
bshanks@93 525 Combinations of multiple genes are useful and necessary for some areas
bshanks@93 526 In Figure 4, we give an example of a cortical area which is not marked by any single gene, but which can be identified
bshanks@93 527 combinatorially. Acccording to logistic regression, gene wwc1 is the best fit single gene for predicting whether or not a
bshanks@93 528 pixel on the cortical surface belongs to the motor area (area MO). The upper-left picture in Figure 4 shows wwc1&#8217;s spatial
bshanks@93 529 expression pattern over the cortex. The lower-right boundary of MO is represented reasonably well by this gene, but the
bshanks@93 530 gene overshoots the upper-left boundary. This flattened 2-D representation does not show it, but the area corresponding
bshanks@93 531 to the overshoot is the medial surface of the cortex. MO is only found on the dorsal surface. Gene mtif2 is shown in the
bshanks@93 532 upper-right. Mtif2 captures MO&#8217;s upper-left boundary, but not its lower-right boundary. Mtif2 does not express very much
bshanks@93 533 on the medial surface. By adding together the values at each pixel in these two figures, we get the lower-left image. This
bshanks@93 534 combination captures area MO much better than any single gene.
bshanks@93 535 This shows that our proposal to develop a method to find combinations of marker genes is both possible and necessary.
bshanks@93 536 Feature selection integrated with prediction As noted earlier, in general, any predictive method can be used for
bshanks@93 537 feature selection by running it inside a stepwise wrapper. Also, some predictive methods integrate soft constraints on number
bshanks@93 538 of features used. Examples of both of these will be seen in the section &#8220;Multivariate Predictive methods&#8221;.
bshanks@93 539 Multivariate Predictive methods
bshanks@60 540
bshanks@69 541
bshanks@69 542
bshanks@69 543
bshanks@69 544 Figure 6: First row: the first 6 reduced dimensions, using PCA. Second
bshanks@69 545 row: the first 6 reduced dimensions, using NNMF. Third row: the first
bshanks@69 546 six reduced dimensions, using landmark Isomap. Bottom row: examples
bshanks@69 547 of kmeans clustering applied to reduced datasets to find 7 clusters. Left:
bshanks@69 548 19 of the major subdivisions of the cortex. Second from left: PCA. Third
bshanks@69 549 from left: NNMF. Right: Landmark Isomap. Additional details: In the
bshanks@69 550 third and fourth rows, 7 dimensions were found, but only 6 displayed. In
bshanks@69 551 the last row: for PCA, 50 dimensions were used; for NNMF, 6 dimensions
bshanks@93 552 were used; for landmark Isomap, 7 dimensions were used. Forward stepwise logistic regression Lo-
bshanks@93 553 gistic regression is a popular method for pre-
bshanks@93 554 dictive modeling of categorial data. As a pi-
bshanks@93 555 lot run, for five cortical areas (SS, AUD, RSP,
bshanks@93 556 VIS, and MO), we performed forward stepwise
bshanks@93 557 logistic regression to find single genes, pairs of
bshanks@93 558 genes, and triplets of genes which predict areal
bshanks@93 559 identify. This is an example of feature selec-
bshanks@93 560 tion integrated with prediction using a stepwise
bshanks@93 561 wrapper. Some of the single genes found were
bshanks@93 562 shown in various figures throughout this doc-
bshanks@93 563 ument, and Figure 4 shows a combination of
bshanks@93 564 genes which was found.
bshanks@93 565 We felt that, for single genes, gradient simi-
bshanks@93 566 larity did a better job than logistic regression at
bshanks@93 567 capturing our subjective impression of a &#8220;good
bshanks@93 568 gene&#8221;.
bshanks@93 569 SVM on all genes at once
bshanks@93 570 In order to see how well one can do when
bshanks@93 571 looking at all genes at once, we ran a support
bshanks@93 572 vector machine to classify cortical surface pix-
bshanks@93 573 els based on their gene expression profiles. We
bshanks@93 574 achieved classification accuracy of about 81%19.
bshanks@93 575 This shows that the genes included in the ABA
bshanks@93 576 dataset are sufficient to define much of cortical
bshanks@93 577 anatomy. However, as noted above, a classifier
bshanks@93 578 that looks at all the genes at once isn&#8217;t as prac-
bshanks@93 579 tically useful as a classifier that uses only a few
bshanks@93 580 genes.
bshanks@93 581 Data-driven redrawing of the cor-
bshanks@85 582 tical map
bshanks@93 583 We have applied the following dimensionality reduction algorithms to reduce the dimensionality of the gene expression
bshanks@93 584 profile associated with each voxel: Principal Components Analysis (PCA), Simple PCA (SPCA), Multi-Dimensional Scaling
bshanks@93 585 (MDS), Isomap, Landmark Isomap, Laplacian eigenmaps, Local Tangent Space Alignment (LTSA), Hessian locally linear
bshanks@93 586 embedding, Diffusion maps, Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (SNE), Stochastic Proximity Embedding (SPE), Fast Maximum
bshanks@93 587 Variance Unfolding (FastMVU), Non-negative Matrix Factorization (NNMF). Space constraints prevent us from showing
bshanks@93 588 _________________________________________
bshanks@93 589 195-fold cross-validation.
bshanks@93 590 many of the results, but as a sample, PCA, NNMF, and landmark Isomap are shown in the first, second, and third rows of
bshanks@93 591 Figure 6.
bshanks@93 592 After applying the dimensionality reduction, we ran clustering algorithms on the reduced data. To date we have tried
bshanks@93 593 k-means and spectral clustering. The results of k-means after PCA, NNMF, and landmark Isomap are shown in the last
bshanks@93 594 row of Figure 6. To compare, the leftmost picture on the bottom row of Figure 6 shows some of the major subdivisions of
bshanks@93 595 cortex. These results clearly show that different dimensionality reduction techniques capture different aspects of the data
bshanks@93 596 and lead to different clusterings, indicating the utility of our proposal to produce a detailed comparion of these techniques
bshanks@93 597 as applied to the domain of genomic anatomy.
bshanks@71 598
bshanks@85 599 Figure 7: Prototypes corresponding to sample gene clusters,
bshanks@85 600 clustered by gradient similarity. Region boundaries for the
bshanks@92 601 region that most matches each prototype are overlayed. Many areas are captured by clusters of genes We
bshanks@92 602 also clustered the genes using gradient similarity to see if
bshanks@92 603 the spatial regions defined by any clusters matched known
bshanks@92 604 anatomical regions. Figure 7 shows, for ten sample gene
bshanks@92 605 clusters, each cluster&#8217;s average expression pattern, compared
bshanks@92 606 to a known anatomical boundary. This suggests that it is
bshanks@92 607 worth attempting to cluster genes, and then to use the re-
bshanks@92 608 sults to cluster voxels.
bshanks@92 609 The approach: what we plan to do
bshanks@92 610 Flatmap cortex and segment cortical layers
bshanks@92 611 There are multiple ways to flatten 3-D data into 2-D. We
bshanks@92 612 will compare mappings from manifolds to planes which at-
bshanks@92 613 tempt to preserve size (such as the one used by Caret[7])
bshanks@92 614 with mappings which preserve angle (conformal maps). Our
bshanks@92 615 method will include a statistical test that warns the user if
bshanks@92 616 the assumption of 2-D structure seems to be wrong.
bshanks@86 617 We have not yet made use of radial profiles. While the radial profiles may be used &#8220;raw&#8221;, for laminar structures like the
bshanks@86 618 cortex another strategy is to group together voxels in the same cortical layer; each surface pixel would then be associated
bshanks@86 619 with one expression level per gene per layer. We will develop a segmentation algorithm to automatically identify the layer
bshanks@86 620 boundaries.
bshanks@30 621 Develop algorithms that find genetic markers for anatomical regions
bshanks@92 622 We will develop scoring methods for evaluating how good individual genes are at marking areas. We will compare pointwise,
bshanks@92 623 geometric, and information-theoretic measures. We already developed one entirely new scoring method (gradient similarity),
bshanks@92 624 but we may develop more. Scoring measures that we will explore will include the L1 norm, correlation, expression energy
bshanks@92 625 ratio, conditional entropy, gradient similarity, Jaccard similarity, Dice similarity, Hough transform, and statistical tests such
bshanks@92 626 as Student&#8217;s t-test, and the Mann-Whitney U test (a non-parametric test). In addition, any predictive procedure induces a
bshanks@92 627 scoring measure on genes by taking the prediction error when using that gene to predict the target.
bshanks@92 628 Using some combination of these measures, we will develop a procedure to find single marker genes for anatomical regions:
bshanks@92 629 for each cortical area, we will rank the genes by their ability to delineate each area.
bshanks@92 630 Some cortical areas have no single marker genes but can be identified by combinatorial coding. This requires multivariate
bshanks@92 631 scoring measures and feature selection procedures. Many of the measures, such as expression energy, gradient similarity,
bshanks@92 632 Jaccard, Dice, Hough, Student&#8217;s t, and Mann-Whitney U are univariate. We will extend these scoring measures for use
bshanks@92 633 in multivariate feature selection, that is, for scoring how well combinations of genes, rather than individual genes, can
bshanks@92 634 distinguish a target area. There are existing multivariate forms of some of the univariate scoring measures, for example,
bshanks@92 635 Hotelling&#8217;s T-square is a multivariate analog of Student&#8217;s t.
bshanks@92 636 We will develop a feature selection procedure for choosing the best small set of marker genes for a given anatomical
bshanks@92 637 area. In addition to using the scoring measures that we develop, we will also explore (a) feature selection using a stepwise
bshanks@92 638 wrapper over &#8220;vanilla&#8221; predictive methods such as logistic regression, (b) predictive methods such as decision trees which
bshanks@92 639 incrementally/greedily combine single gene markers into sets, and (c) predictive methods which use soft constraints to
bshanks@92 640 minimize number of features used, such as sparse support vector machines.
bshanks@92 641 todo
bshanks@92 642 Some of these methods, such as the Hough transform, are designed to be resistant to registration error and error in the
bshanks@92 643 anatomical map.
bshanks@92 644 We will also consider extensions to scoring measures that may improve their robustness to registration error and to
bshanks@92 645 error in the anatomical map; for example, a wrapper that runs a scoring method on small displacements and distortions
bshanks@92 646 of the data adds robustness to registration error at the expense of computation time. It is possible that some areas in the
bshanks@92 647 anatomical map do not correspond to natural domains of gene expression.
bshanks@92 648 # Extend the procedure to handle difficult areas by combining or redrawing the boundaries: An area may be difficult to
bshanks@92 649 identify because the boundaries are misdrawn, or because it does not &#8220;really&#8221; exist as a single area, at least on the genetic
bshanks@92 650 level. We will develop extensions to our procedure which (a) detect when a difficult area could be fit if its boundary were
bshanks@92 651 redrawn slightly, and (b) detect when a difficult area could be combined with adjacent areas to create a larger area which
bshanks@92 652 can be fit.
bshanks@92 653 A future publication on the method that we develop in Aim 1 will review the scoring measures and quantitatively compare
bshanks@92 654 their performance in order to provide a foundation for future research of methods of marker gene finding. We will measure
bshanks@92 655 the robustness of the scoring measures as well as their absolute performance on our dataset.
bshanks@64 656 Decision trees todo
bshanks@85 657 20.
bshanks@86 658 # confirm with EMAGE, GeneAtlas, GENSAT, etc, to fight overfitting, two hemis
bshanks@86 659 # mixture models, etc
bshanks@30 660 Develop algorithms to suggest a division of a structure into anatomical parts
bshanks@30 661 1.Explore dimensionality reduction algorithms applied to pixels: including TODO
bshanks@30 662 2.Explore dimensionality reduction algorithms applied to genes: including TODO
bshanks@30 663 3.Explore clustering algorithms applied to pixels: including TODO
bshanks@30 664 4.Explore clustering algorithms applied to genes: including gene shaving, TODO
bshanks@30 665 5.Develop an algorithm to use dimensionality reduction and/or hierarchial clustering to create anatomical maps
bshanks@30 666 6.Run this algorithm on the cortex: present a hierarchial, genoarchitectonic map of the cortex
bshanks@51 667 # Linear discriminant analysis
bshanks@51 668 # jbt, coclustering
bshanks@51 669 # self-organizing map
bshanks@92 670 # Linear discriminant analysis
bshanks@53 671 # compare using clustering scores
bshanks@64 672 # multivariate gradient similarity
bshanks@66 673 # deep belief nets
bshanks@87 674 Apply these algorithms to the cortex
bshanks@87 675 Using the methods developed in Aim 1, we will present, for each cortical area, a short list of markers to identify that
bshanks@87 676 area; and we will also present lists of &#8220;panels&#8221; of genes that can be used to delineate many areas at once. Using the methods
bshanks@87 677 developed in Aim 2, we will present one or more hierarchial cortical maps. We will identify and explain how the statistical
bshanks@92 678 structure in the gene expression data led to any unexpected or interesting features of these maps, and we will provide
bshanks@92 679 biological hypotheses to interpret any new cortical areas, or groupings of areas, which are discovered.
bshanks@87 680 Timeline and milestones
bshanks@90 681 Finding marker genes
bshanks@89 682 &#x2219;September-November 2009: Develop an automated mechanism for segmenting the cortical voxels into layers
bshanks@89 683 &#x2219;November 2009 (milestone): Have completed construction of a flatmapped, cortical dataset with information for each
bshanks@89 684 layer
bshanks@89 685 &#x2219;October 2009-April 2010: Develop scoring methods and to test them in various supervised learning frameworks. Also
bshanks@88 686 test out various dimensionality reduction schemes in combination with supervised learning. create or extend supervised
bshanks@88 687 learning frameworks which use multivariate versions of the best scoring methods.
bshanks@89 688 &#x2219;January 2010 (milestone): Submit a publication on single marker genes for cortical areas
bshanks@93 689 _________________________________________
bshanks@93 690 20Already, for each cortical area, we have used the C4.5 algorithm to find a decision tree for that area. We achieved good classification accuracy
bshanks@93 691 on our training set, but the number of genes that appeared in each tree was too large. We plan to implement a pruning procedure to generate
bshanks@93 692 trees that use fewer genes
bshanks@88 693 &#x2219;February-July 2010: Continue to develop scoring methods and supervised learning frameworks. Explore the best way
bshanks@88 694 to integrate radial profiles with supervised learning. Explore the best way to make supervised learning techniques
bshanks@88 695 robust against incorrect labels (i.e. when the areas drawn on the input cortical map are slightly off). Quantitatively
bshanks@88 696 compare the performance of different supervised learning techniques. Validate marker genes found in the ABA dataset
bshanks@88 697 by checking against other gene expression datasets. Create documentation and unit tests for software toolbox for Aim
bshanks@88 698 1. Respond to user bug reports for Aim 1 software toolbox.
bshanks@89 699 &#x2219;June 2010 (milestone): Submit a paper describing a method fulfilling Aim 1. Release toolbox.
bshanks@89 700 &#x2219;July 2010 (milestone): Submit a paper describing combinations of marker genes for each cortical area, and a small
bshanks@88 701 number of marker genes that can, in combination, define most of the areas at once
bshanks@90 702 Revealing new ways to parcellate a structure into regions
bshanks@91 703 &#x2219;June 2010-March 2011: Explore dimensionality reduction algorithms for Aim 2. Explore standard hierarchial clus-
bshanks@91 704 tering algorithms, used in combination with dimensionality reduction, for Aim 2. Explore co-clustering algorithms.
bshanks@91 705 Think about how radial profile information can be used for Aim 2. Adapt clustering algorithms to use radial profile
bshanks@91 706 information. Quantitatively compare the performance of different dimensionality reduction and clustering techniques.
bshanks@89 707 Quantitatively compare the value of different flatmapping methods and ways of representing radial profiles.
bshanks@89 708 &#x2219;March 2011 (milestone): Submit a paper describing a method fulfilling Aim 2. Release toolbox.
bshanks@89 709 &#x2219;February-May 2011: Using the methods developed for Aim 2, explore the genomic anatomy of the cortex. If new ways
bshanks@89 710 of organizing the cortex into areas are discovered, read the literature and talk to people to learn about research related
bshanks@89 711 to interpreting our results. Create documentation and unit tests for software toolbox for Aim 2. Respond to user bug
bshanks@90 712 reports for Aim 2 software toolbox.
bshanks@89 713 &#x2219;May 2011 (milestone): Submit a paper on the genomic anatomy of the cortex, using the methods developed in Aim 2
bshanks@89 714 &#x2219;May-August 2011: Revisit Aim 1 to see if what was learned during Aim 2 can improve the methods for Aim 1. Follow
bshanks@89 715 up on responses to our papers. Possibly submit another paper.
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