A method for automatic correlation between multiple magnetic resonance (MR) modalities includes acquiring first MR image data form a first modality. Second MR image data is acquired from a second modality. One or more anatomical landmarks are detected within both the first and second MR image data and the first and second MR image data are automatically correlated based on the detected anatomical landmarks and interpolation using a learning deformation function. The automatic correlation is refined using a local search.