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Morphometric differences in the anatomy of cortical structures are associated with neuro-developmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Such differences can be quantized and detected by a powerful tool called Labeled Cortical Distance Map (LCDM). The LCDM method pro-vides distances of labeled gray matter (GM) voxels from the GM/white matter (WM) surface for specific cortical structures (or tissues). Here we describe a method to analyze morphometric variability in the particular tissue using LCDM distances. To extract more of the information provided by LCDM distances, we perform pooling and censoring of LCDM distances. In particular, we employ Brown-Forsythe (BF) test of homogeneity of variance (HOV) on the LCDM distances. HOV analysis of pooled distances provides an overall analysis of morphometric variability of the LCDMs due to the disease in question, while the HOV analysis of censored distances suggests the location(s) of significant variation in these differences (i.e., at which distance from the GM/WM surface the morphometric variability starts to be significant). We also check for the influence of assumption violations on the HOV analysis of LCDM distances. In particular, we demonstrate that BF HOV test is robust to assumption violations such as the non-normality and within sample dependence of the residuals from the median for pooled and censored distances and are robust to data aggregation which occurs in analysis of censored distances. We illustrate the methodology on a real data example, namely, LCDM distances of GM voxels in ventral medial prefrontal cortices (VMPFCs) to see the effects of depression or being of high risk to depression on the morphometry of VMPFCs. The methodology used here is also valid for morphometric analysis of other cortical structures., Comment: 40 pages, 16 figures, 12 tables

Priebe et al. (2001) introduced the class cover catch digraphs and computed the distribution of the domination number of such digraphs for one dimensional data. In higher dimensions these calculations are extremely difficult due to the geometry of the proximity regions; and only upper-bounds are available. In this article, we introduce a new type of data-random proximity map and the associated (di)graph in $\mathbb R^d$. We find the asymptotic distribution of the domination number and use it for testing spatial point patterns of segregation and association., Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures

Statistical pattern classification methods based on data-random graphs were introduced recently. In this approach, a random directed graph is constructed from the data using the relative positions of the data points from various classes. Different random graphs result from different definitions of the proximity region associated with each data point and different graph statistics can be employed for data reduction. The approach used in this article is based on a parameterized family of proximity maps determining an associated family of data-random digraphs. The relative arc density of the digraph is used as the summary statistic, providing an alternative to the domination number employed previously. An important advantage of the relative arc density is that, properly re-scaled, it is a $U$-statistic, facilitating analytic study of its asymptotic distribution using standard $U$-statistic central limit theory. The approach is illustrated with an application to the testing of spatial patterns of segregation and association. Knowledge of the asymptotic distribution allows evaluation of the Pitman and Hodges-Lehmann asymptotic efficacies, and selection of the proximity map parameter to optimize efficiency. Furthermore the approach presented here also has the advantage of validity for data in any dimension., Comment: 29 pages, 21 figures

We discuss a graph-based approach for testing spatial point patterns. This approach falls under the category of data-random graphs, which have been introduced and used for statistical pattern recognition in recent years. Our goal is to test complete spatial randomness against segregation and association between two or more classes of points. To attain this goal, we use a particular type of parametrized random digraph called proximity catch digraph (PCD) which is based based on relative positions of the data points from various classes. The statistic we employ is the relative density of the PCD. When scaled properly, the relative density of the PCD is a $U$-statistic. We derive the asymptotic distribution of the relative density, using the standard central limit theory of $U$-statistics. The finite sample performance of the test statistic is evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations, and the asymptotic performance is assessed via Pitman's asymptotic efficiency, thereby yielding the optimal parameters for testing. Furthermore, the methodology discussed in this article is also valid for data in multiple dimensions., Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures