{"ID":2849677,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23415","arxiv_id":"2510.23415","title":"Towards Generalisable Foundation Models for Brain MRI","abstract":"Foundation models in artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming medical imaging by enabling general-purpose feature learning from large-scale, unlabeled datasets. In this work, we introduce BrainFound, a self-supervised foundation model for brain MRI, built by extending DINO-v2, a vision transformer originally designed for 2D natural images. BrainFound adapts DINO-v2 to model full 3D brain anatomy by incorporating volumetric information from sequential MRI slices, moving beyond conventional single-slice paradigms. It supports both single- and multimodal inputs, enabling a broad range of downstream tasks, including disease detection and image segmentation, while generalising across varied imaging protocols and clinical scenarios. We show that BrainFound consistently outperforms existing self-supervised pretraining strategies and supervised baselines, particularly in label-scarce and multi-contrast settings. By integrating information from diverse 3D MRI modalities (e.g., T1, T2, FLAIR), it enhances diagnostic accuracy and reduces dependency on extensive expert annotations. This flexibility makes BrainFound a scalable and practical solution for 3D neuroimaging pipelines, with significant potential for clinical deployment and research innovation.","short_abstract":"Foundation models in artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming medical imaging by enabling general-purpose feature learning from large-scale, unlabeled datasets. In this work, we introduce BrainFound, a self-supervised foundation model for brain MRI, built by extending DINO-v2, a vision transformer originally desig...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23415","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.23415v3","authors":"[\"Moona Mazher\",\"Geoff J. M. Parker\",\"Daniel C. Alexander\"]","published":"2025-10-27T15:19:46Z","proceeding":"cs.CV","tasks":"[\"cs.CV\"]","methods":"[\"Vision Transformer\",\"Transformer\"]","has_code":false}