Analyzing symmetry in image data

A method of analyzing an image to assess a degree of asymmetry in an imaged object having a presumed plane of mirror symmetry, the method comprising:

• retrieving an image of said object;
• obtaining a mirrored image by flipping said image along an axis of the image, said axis having an a-priori unknown spatial relation to the presumed plane of mirror symmetry of the imaged object;
• obtaining a mapping between said retrieved image and said mirrored image;
• and
• determining a measure of asymmetry in said object by considering a plurality of element pairs, each pair consisting of a first element of said retrieved image and a second element of said mirrored image corresponding to said first element according to said mapping,
• wherein said obtaining of said mapping comprises performing a registration of said retrieved image to said obtained mirrored image,
• the registration comprising a rigid registration followed by a non-rigid registration,
• wherein said non-rigid registration comprises an optimization,
• wherein a cost function and/or a regularization term of said optimization comprises a Jacobian of the deformation vector field, and
• wherein the measure of asymmetry is determined by calculating the Jacobian of the non-rigid deformation in each element of the image.