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...

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...

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...