%0 Conference Paper
%A Schiffer, Christian
%A Spitzer, Hannah
%A Kropp, Jan-Oliver
%A Thönnissen, Andre
%A Berr, Katja
%A Amunts, Katrin
%A Boztoprak, Zeynep
%A Dickscheid, Timo
%T CytoNet: A Foundation Model for the Human Cerebral Cortex - Applications in BigBrain and Beyond
%M FZJ-2025-04896
%D 2025
%X CytoNet: A Foundation Model for the Human Cerebral Cortex - Applications in BigBrain and Beyond 28 Oct 2025, 12:00 15m Langenbeck-Virchow-HausTalk Session 1: Multiscale Data Integration & AI-based ProcessingSpeaker Christian Schiffer (Forschungszentrum Jülich)DescriptionMicroscopic analysis of cytoarchitecture in the human cerebral cortex is essential for understanding the anatomical basis of brain function. We present CytoNet, a foundation model that encodes high-resolution microscopic image patches into expressive feature representations suitable for whole-brain analysis. CytoNet leverages the spatial relationship between anatomical proximity and microstructural similarity to learn biologically meaningful features using self-supervised learning, without the need for manual annotations. The learned features are consistent across regions and subjects, can be computed at arbitrarily dense sampling locations, and support a wide range of neuroscientific analyses. We demonstrate state-of-the-art performance for brain area classification, cortical layer segmentation, morphological parameter estimation, and unsupervised parcellation. As a foundation model, CytoNet provides a unified representation of cortical microarchitecture and establishes a basis for comprehensive analyses of cytoarchitecture and its relationship to other structural and functional principles at the whole-brain level.
%B 9th BigBrain Workshop - HIBALL Closing Symposium
%C 27 Oct 2025 - 29 Oct 2025, Berlin (Germany)
Y2 27 Oct 2025 - 29 Oct 2025
M2 Berlin, Germany
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)6
%9 Conference Presentation
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1048781