brainseg-containers 1.0.1

wrapper for brain segmentation tools

BrainSeg-container

This repository provides a streamlined Python wrapper and CLI tool to automatically download, run, and standardize outputs from state-of-the-art brain segmentation tools using Apptainer / Singularity containers.

Brain segmentation tools often have conflicting dependencies, complex installation steps, or require specific versions of system libraries. This package solves that problem by containerizing the tools and handling the execution, file binding, and label standardization for you.

The Tools

This pipeline currently supports the following deep-learning-based segmentation tools. We may add more in the future.

1. GOUHFI This tool was designed to handle the challenges of Ultra-High Field MRI (7T+). It utilizes "domain randomization" during training, which allows it to remain robust across different MRI contrasts and resolutions, including standard clinical scans.

   • Resolution: Native (preserves input resolution).

   • CSF Availability: Yes (segments ventricles and subarachnoid space CSF).

2. SynthSeg Developed by the FreeSurfer team, this tool is famous for working "out of the box" on almost any kind of MRI scan (different contrasts, resolutions, or messy clinical data).

   • Resolution: Fixed 1mm isotropic (always resamples input to 1mm).

   • CSF Availability: Yes.

3. FastSurfer A rapid deep-learning-based segmentation tool.

   • Resolution: Native (but experimental below 0.7mm).

   • CSF Availability: No (segments ventricles, but ignores subarachnoid space CSF).

4. SimNIBS (Charm) The "Complete Head Anatomy Reconstruction Method" from the SimNIBS suite. While designed for modeling brain stimulation (TMS/TES), it produces high-quality segmentation of extra-cerebral tissues (skull, scalp, etc.) in addition to the brain.

   • Resolution: Native (pipeline uses the upsampled output to match input).

   • CSF Availability: Yes.

   • Segmented regions: Charm provides the following segmentation labels: White-Matter, Gray-Matter, CSF, Bone, Scalp, Eye_bals, Compact_bone, Spongy_bone, Blood, Muscle, Cartilage, Fat, Electrode, Saline_or_gel

Comparison Output

The pipeline can automatically generate a comparison grid so you can quickly inspect the differences between the tools.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

You must have Apptainer (or Singularity) installed on your system to run the containers.

• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt install apptainer
• Conda/Mamba: conda install -c conda-forge apptainer

Installation

You can install the package directly via pip:

pip install brainseg-containers

(Optional) If you want to use the plotting and comparison features, install with the plot extras:

pip install brainseg-containers[plot]

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Usage

The package provides a simple command-line interface. The first time you run a specific tool, the wrapper will automatically download the corresponding container from the GitHub Container Registry and store it in ~/.brainseg_containers/.

Basic Command

brainseg-containers -t <tool_name> -i <input_file.nii.gz> -o <output_file.nii.gz>

Available Tools: synthseg, gouhfi, fastsurfer, simnibs

Examples

Run GOUHFI on a single subject:

brainseg-containers -t gouhfi -i inputs/sub-01_T1w.nii.gz -o results/sub-01_gouhfi.nii.gz

Run SynthSeg on the same subject:

brainseg-containers -t synthseg -i inputs/sub-01_T1w.nii.gz -o results/sub-01_synthseg.nii.gz

Note: You can optionally provide a custom path to a pre-downloaded .sif image using the --container flag.

Note on Labels

Different tools use different numbers to represent brain regions. To make comparison easier, this pipeline automatically remaps the output labels of FastSurfer and GOUHFI to match the standard FreeSurfer lookup table.