Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mareike Grotheer, Mona Rosenke, Hua Wu, Holly Kular, Francesca R. Querdasi, Vaidehi S. Natu, Jason D. Yeatman, Kalanit Grill-Spector
Summary: In this study, the development of white matter in infants from 0 to 6 months was investigated using diffusion MRI and quantitative MRI measurements. The researchers found that the longitudinal relaxation rate (R1) of white matter increased over time, with faster development in less mature areas of white matter in newborns.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Natalia Zaretskaya, Erik Fink, Ana Arsenovic, Anja Ischebeck
Summary: The structural characteristics of the human brain can be measured with MRI and can be influenced by visual stimulation, leading to changes that have functional specificity and can be observed in a short period of time.
Article
Neurosciences
Muhamed Barakovic, Gabriel Girard, Simona Schiavi, David Romascano, Maxime Descoteaux, Cristina Granziera, Derek K. Jones, Giorgio M. Innocenti, Jean-Philippe Thiran, Alessandro Daducci
Summary: Our novel microstructure-informed tractography approach, COMMITAxSize, resolves axon diameter index estimates at the streamline level, providing invariant estimates along trajectories. By jointly estimating tissue microstructure properties and macroscopic white matter connectivity organization, our method offers a more robust estimation of axon diameter index for pathways compared to existing methods. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by comparing estimates with histologically-derived measurements in specific brain regions.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Zhaoqing Li, Huan Gao, Pingmei Zeng, Yinhang Jia, Xueqian Kong, Kedi Xu, Ruiliang Bai
Summary: The study investigated the spatial and connectivity properties of white matter secondary degeneration caused by ischemic lesions, finding that focal ischemic lesions may induce remote white matter degeneration, but limited to fibers tied to the primary lesion. Additionally, the volume of the primary lesion might be the determining factor of motor function deficits.
FRONTIERS IN NEUROSCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Clinical Neurology
Maira Siqueira Pinto, Antonio Carlos dos Santos, Carlos Ernesto Garrido Salmon
Summary: This study evaluated age-related changes in white matter and grey matter parameters and found that cortical regions connected by tracts demonstrated similar thinning patterns. Age was the main factor controlling diffusion parameter alterations for all tracts. Additionally, alterations in white matter diffusion parameters were explained by the aging process and associated with cortical thickness changes.
NEUROLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Ramina Adam, David J. Schaeffer, Kevin Johnston, Ravi S. Menon, Stefan Everling
Summary: In a study involving monkeys, it was found that recovery after small prefrontal cortex lesions was associated with improvements in white matter microstructure in both cortical and thalamocortical areas, while larger lesions may have led to widespread structural damage and hindered compensatory remodeling in the cortical frontoparietal network.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sian Wilson, Maximilian Pietsch, Lucilio Cordero-Grande, Anthony N. Price, Jana Hutter, Jiaxin Xiao, Laura McCabe, Mary A. Rutherford, Emer J. Hughes, Serena J. Counsell, Jacques-Donald Tournier, Tomoki Arichi, Joseph V. Hajnal, A. David Edwards, Daan Christiaens, Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh
Summary: A study characterizing the in utero maturation of white matter microstructure in human fetal brains using high-resolution MRI data identified unique maturational trends in different white matter bundles and regions, suggesting potential insights into connectivity abnormalities associated with preterm birth.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Gianpaolo Antonio Basile, Salvatore Bertino, Victor Nozais, Alessia Bramanti, Rosella Ciurleo, Giuseppe Pio Anastasi, Demetrio Milardi, Alberto Cacciola
Summary: This study used the track-weighted dynamic functional connectivity model to investigate the contribution of structural connectivity to functional connectivity dynamics. The results showed that this model can provide functional information about white matter activity, capturing meaningful features of brain connectivity organization and predicting higher-order cognitive performance.
Article
Neurosciences
Michiel Cottaar, Matteo Bastiani, Nikhil Boddu, Matthew F. Glasser, Suzanne Haber, David C. van Essen, Stamatios N. Sotiropoulos, Saad Jbabdi
Summary: Many brain imaging studies measure structural connectivity with diffusion tractography, but biases in the data can limit accuracy. A new algorithm reduces these biases by modeling fiber density and orientation.
Article
Neurosciences
Divesh Thaploo, Akshita Joshi, Charalampos Georgiopoulos, Jonathan Warr, Thomas Hummel
Summary: This study aims to investigate the number of fiber bundles between the piriform cortex and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as well as the piriform cortex and the thalamus, and their correlations with trigeminal and olfactory chemosensory perceptions. The study found that the number of fiber bundles between the piriform cortex and the thalamus was higher in the left hemisphere, while the number of fiber bundles between the piriform cortex and the OFC was higher in the right hemisphere. Additionally, the fiber bundles between the piriform cortex and the thalamus were positively correlated with the intensity of irritating (trigeminal) odors, while the fiber bundles between the piriform cortex and the OFC were correlated with the threshold scores for these trigeminal odors.
Article
Neurosciences
Mengxing Liu, Garikoitz Lerma-Usabiaga, Francisco Clasca, Pedro M. Paz-Alonso
Summary: In this study, a reconstruction protocol based on in vivo diffusion MRI was developed to extract and measure specific axonal fiber tracts in individual first-order relay nuclei. The protocol demonstrated high computational and test-retest reproducibility. This new protocol is significant for both basic human brain neuroscience and clinical studies.
Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Stephan Meesters, Maud Landers, Geert-Jan Rutten, Luc Florack
Summary: MRI-based tractography is not widely used in brain tumor surgery due to method heterogeneity and lack of a turn-key system. This work evaluated the robustness and reliability of tractography results in healthy subjects, demonstrating promising potential for future validation and implementation in clinical populations.
JOURNAL OF DIGITAL IMAGING
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Sendy Caffarra, Sung Jun Joo, David Bloom, John Kruper, Ariel Rokem, Jason D. Yeatman
Summary: The latency of neural responses in the visual cortex varies across the lifespan, with faster M100 responses for high contrast stimuli observed with age, where optic radiation FA values mediate this effect.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Isaac Sebenius, Jakob Seidlitz, Varun Warrier, Richard A. I. Bethlehem, Aaron Alexander-Bloch, Travis T. Mallard, Rafael Romero Garcia, Edward T. Bullmore, Sarah E. Morgan
Summary: MIND is a new method that estimates within-subject similarity between cortical areas by comparing the divergence of their multivariate distributions of MRI features. Compared to previous methods, MIND networks are more reliable, consistent with cortical structure, and correlated with axonal connectivity. MIND networks are also more sensitive to aging and gene co-expression, and provide a biologically validated approach to cortical connectomics using MRI data.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
June van Aalst, Martijn Devrome, Donatienne Van Weehaeghe, Ahmadreza Rezaei, Ahmed Radwan, Georg Schramm, Jenny Ceccarini, Stefan Sunaert, Michel Koole, Koen Van Laere
Summary: The study found that as individuals age, there is a reduction in gray matter density, decrease in glucose metabolism, and weakening of white matter integrity in the brain. White matter tracts connecting regions with declining glucose metabolism were identified, showing correlations with changes in fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity. Further research is needed to explore the temporal course and potential causality between ageing effects on glucose metabolism and white matter integrity.
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MEDICINE AND MOLECULAR IMAGING
(2022)