Regularization of Diffusion-Based Direction Maps for the Tracking of Brain White Matter Fascicles

doi:10.1006/nimg.2000.0607

NeuroImage

Volume 12, Issue 2, August 2000, Pages 184-195

https://doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2000.0607 Get rights and content

Abstract

Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) provides information about fiber local directions in brain white matter. This paper addresses inference of the connectivity induced by fascicles made up of numerous fibers from such diffusion data. The usual fascicle tracking idea, which consists of following locally the direction of highest diffusion, is prone to erroneous forks because of problems induced by fiber crossing. In this paper, this difficulty is partly overcomed by the use of a priori knowledge of the low curvature of most of the fascicles. This knowledge is embedded in a model of the bending energy of a spaghetti plate representation of the white matter used to compute a regularized fascicle direction map. A new tracking algorithm is then proposed to highlight putative fascicle trajectories from this direction map. This algorithm takes into account potential fan shaped junctions between fascicles. A study of the tracking behavior according to the influence given to the a priori knowledge is proposed and concrete tracking results obtained with in vivo human brain data are illustrated. These results include putative trajectories of some pyramidal, commissural, and various association fibers.

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Regular ArticleRegularization of Diffusion-Based Direction Maps for the Tracking of Brain White Matter Fascicles

Abstract

J. Magn. Reson.

Biophys. J.

J. Magn. Reson.

NeuroImage

Neuroimage

NeuroImage

Trends NeuroSci.

Fiber-tractography via diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI)

VIth ISMRM, Sydney, AU

On the statistical analysis of dirty pictures

J. R. Stat. Soc., Ser. B (Methodological)

Principles of Condensed Matter Physics

Tracking neuronal fiber pathways in the living human brain

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA

Anatomie Des Centres Nerveux

Direct interhemispheric visual input to human speech areas

Hum. Brain Mapp.

Magnetic resonance imaging-based brain morphometry: Development and application to normal subjects

Ann. Neurol.

Stochastic relaxation, Gibbs distributions, and the Bayesian restoration of images

IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Machine Intell.

Correction for distorsion of echo-planar images used to calculate the apparent diffusion coefficient

MRM

Non-invasive assessment of axonal fiber connectivity in the human brain via diffusion tensor MRI

Magn. Reson. Med.

Diffusion and Perfusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Molecular diffusion nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

Magn. Reson. Q

Morphometry of in vivo human white matter association pathways with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

Ann. Neurol.

Robust brain segmentation using histogram scale-space analysis and mathematical morphology

MICCAI'98, MIT, LNCS-1496

Regular Article
Regularization of Diffusion-Based Direction Maps for the Tracking of Brain White Matter Fascicles