The Value of Tractography: Towards More Accurate Targeting in Deep Brain Stimulation?

<b>Introduction</b>: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an important therapeutic option for various neurological diseases. For certain indications the optimal target cannot be identified on structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but can be visualized with tractography. A recent improvement for clinical practice is the probabilistic...

Imaging crossing fibers in mouse, pig, monkey, and human brain using small-angle X-ray scattering

Myelinated axons (nerve fibers) efficiently transmit signals throughout the brain via action potentials. Multiple methods that are sensitive to axon orientations, from microscopy to magnetic resonance imaging, aim to reconstruct the brain's structural connectome. As billions of nerve fibers traverse the brain with various possible geometries...

EEG Derived Laterality Metrics as a Biomarker for of Upper Limb Recovery in Stroke: An Explorative Study into EEG Biomarkers for Longitudinal Stroke Recovery

Problem: A biomarker that accurately predicts recovery of ischemic stroke for patients with poor baseline Fugl-Meyer Assessment of the Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) is lacking. Biomarkers that predict recovery while providing functional insight into the underlying neural process are highly desired for optimal clinical care. Objectives: This...

Longitudinal diffusion MRI analysis using Segis-Net: A single-step deep-learning framework for simultaneous segmentation and registration

This work presents a single-step deep-learning framework for longitudinal image analysis, coined Segis-Net. To optimally exploit information available in longitudinal data, this method concurrently learns a multi-class segmentation and nonlinear registration. Segmentation and registration are modeled using a convolutional neural network and...

Diffusion MRI case study in epilespy: A Hemispheric Regional Based Analysis of Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Tractography and Connectome in patients with Focal and Genetic Generalised Epilepsy

Background: Imaging in the field of epilepsy has been a lasting challenge. In genetic generalised epilepsy (GGE) patients, conventional neuroimaging methods such as the MRI often appear normal and even in focal epilepsy (FE) an obvious structural abnormality is not always visualised. The objective of this exploratory case study is to identify...

Neuro4Neuro: A neural network approach for neural tract segmentation using large-scale population-based diffusion imaging

Subtle changes in white matter (WM) microstructure have been associated with normal aging and neurodegeneration. To study these associations in more detail, it is highly important that the WM tracts can be accurately and reproducibly characterized from brain diffusion MRI. In addition, to enable analysis of WM tracts in large datasets and in...

Spatial versus angular resolution for tractography-assisted planning of deep brain stimulation

Given the restricted total scanning time for clinical neuroimaging, it is unclear whether clinical diffusion MRI protocols would benefit more from higher spatial resolution or higher angular resolution. In this work, we investigated the relative benefit of improving spatial or angular resolution in diffusion MRI to separate two parallel...

Assessing brain structure and function with diffusion-weighted MRI: Application to stroke

Human brain consists of grey and white matter. Grey matter largely forms the<br/>outer layer of the brain, and is responsible for decision making and functioning<br/>of the human body. Complementary, the white matter (WM) contains the<br/>communication pathways between the grey matter areas. Diffusion-weighted<br/>magnetic resonance imaging ...

Trajectories of imaging markers in brain aging: the Rotterdam Study

With aging, the brain undergoes several structural changes. These changes reflect the normal aging process and are therefore not necessarily pathologic. In fact, better understanding of these normal changes is an important cornerstone to also disentangle pathologic changes. Several studies have investigated normal brain aging, both cross...

Brain Dynamic Information Flow Estimation Based on EEG and Diffusion MRI: A Proof-of-principle Study and Application in Stroke

In the hemiparetic stroke, functional recovery of paretic limb may occur with the reorganization of neural networks in the brain. Electroencephalography (EEG), with an excellent temporal resolution, can be used to reveal functional changes in the brain following a stroke. This study assessed a novel multimodal brain imaging technique namely...

Long-term Effect of MPH on White Matter Tracts of Adults with ADHD: An Application of Consistent Model Selection followed by TBSS

We focused on analysis of long-term medication influenced white matter tracts based on diffusion-weighted MRI brain images of patients with ADHD disorder. We applied a framework of consistent model selection with Tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) to give proper and consistent modelling of fiber-crossing in white matter. An orientation atlas...

Comparison of multi-tensor diffusion models' performance for white matter integrity estimation in chronic stroke

Better insight into white matter (WM) alterations after stroke onset could help to understand the underlying recovery mechanisms and improve future interventions. MR diffusion imaging enables to assess such changes. Our goal was to investigate the relation of WM diffusion characteristics derived from diffusion models of increasing complexity...

Dynamic information flow based on EEG and diffusion MRI in stroke: A proof-of-principle study

In hemiparetic stroke, functional recovery of paretic limb may occur with the reorganization of neural networks in the brain. Neuroimaging techniques, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have a high spatial resolution which can be used to reveal anatomical changes in the brain following a stroke. However, low temporal resolution of MRI...

Altered tract-specific white matter microstructure is related to poorer cognitive performance. The Rotterdam Study

White matter microstructural integrity has been related to cognition. Yet, the potential role of specificwhite matter tracts on top of a global white matter effect remains unclear, especially when consideringspecific cognitive domains. Therefore, we determined the tract-specific effect of white matter micro-structure on global cognition and...

Analysis of Diffusion MRI: Disentangling the Entangled Brain

The white matter of the brain contains all the connections between different parts of the grey matter. Many diseases especially affect the brain’s white matter. For instance, the white matter tracts are destroyed in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Accordingly, there is a large interest in features of the white matter to...