Ax T ract: Toward microstructure informed tractography
Open accessAbstract
Diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tractography has become the tool of choice to probe the human brain's white matter in vivo. However, tractography algorithms produce a large number of erroneous streamlines (false positives), largely due to complex ambiguous tissue configurations. Moreover, the relationship between the resulting streamlines and the underlying white matter microstructure characteristics remains poorly understood. In this work, we introduce a new approach to simultaneously reconstruct white matter fascicles and characterize the apparent distribution of axon diameters within fascicles. To achieve this, our method, AxTract, takes full advantage of the recent development DW-MRI microstructure acquisition, modeling, and reconstruction techniques. This enables AxTract to separate parallel fascicles with different microstructure characteristics, hence reducing ambiguities in areas of complex tissue configuration. We report a decrease in the incidence of erroneous streamlines compared to the conventional deterministic tractography algorithms on simulated data. We also report an average increase in streamline density over 15 known fascicles of the 34 healthy subjects. Our results suggest that microstructure information improves tractography in crossing areas of the white matter. Moreover, AxTract provides additional microstructure information along the fascicle that can be studied alongside other streamline-based indices. Overall, AxTract provide…
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The diffusion or fiber model can be simultaneously estimated when performing tractography so that microstructural measures are directly computed at points along each streamline.
“Instead of using a pre-calculated microstructure image, the diffusion or fiber model can be simultaneously estimated when performing tractography so that the microstructural measures are directly computed at points along each streamline (Girard et al., 2017; Gong et al., 2018; Malcolm et al., 2010; Olszewski et al., 2017; Reddy and Rathi, 2016).”
From Quantitative mapping of the brain’s structural connectivity using diffusion MRI tractography: A review (2022) · cites this paper as Girard et al., 2017
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“be simultaneously estimated when performing tractography so that the microstructural measures are directly computed at points along each streamline (Girard et al., 2017; Gong et al., 2018; Malcolm et al., 2010; Olszewski et al., 2017; Reddy and Rathi, 2016).”
BackgroundSelf-citationLimits to anatomical accuracy of diffusion tractography using modern approaches
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Self-citationMapping Structural Connectivity Using Diffusion <scp>MRI</scp> : Challenges and Opportunities
Yeh, C., Jones, D. K., Liang, X., Descoteaux, M., & Connelly, A. (2021) · Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging · doi:10.1002/jmri.27188 · Cited by 187 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Girard, G., Daducci, A., Petit, L., Thiran, J., Whittingstall, K., Deriche, R., Wassermann, D., & Descoteaux, M.
- Affiliations
- Université de Sherbrooke (CA)
- University of Verona (IT)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
- Project Team Athena, Inria Sophia Antipolis Méditerranée, Université Côte d'Azur Sophia Antipolis France
- Corresponding author
- Girard, Gabriel
- ORCID
- Venue
- Human Brain Mapping
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2017-08-02
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 5485-5500
- ISSN
- 1065-9471 (ISSN-L)
- 1097-0193
- PMC
- PMC6866984
- OpenAlex
- W2738800716
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 11
- FWCI
- 6.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Human Brain Mapping (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- HAL (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Horizon 2020
- H2020 European Research Council
- Center for Biomedical Imaging
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- diffusion MRI tractography, white matter microstructure, axon diameter distribution, crossing fibers, deterministic tractography, brain connectivity
- MeSH terms
- Algorithms, Axons, Brain, Computer Simulation, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Models, Neurological, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cell Size, White Matter
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