A modified Fuzzy C-means algorithm with symmetry information for MR brain image segmentation

Abstract

In this paper, we present a novel modified Fuzzy C-means algorithm with symmetry information to reduce the effect of noise in brain tissue segmentation in magnetic resonance image (MRI). We integrate brain's bilateral symmetry into the conventional Fuzzy C-means (FCM) as an additional term. In experiments, some synthetic images, and both simulated and real brain images were used to investigate the robustness of the method against noise. Finally, the method was compared with the conventional FCM algorithm. Results show the viability of the approach and the preliminary investigation appears promising.