Cited by 3,471Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsFunctional Brain Connectivity StudiesMedical Image Segmentation Techniques

Probabilistic diffusion tractography with multiple fibre orientations: What can we gain?

Open access
Behrens, T.E.J., Berg, H. Johansen, Jbabdi, S., Rushworth, M.F.S., Woolrich, M.W.·2007·NeuroImage

Abstract

We present a direct extension of probabilistic diffusion tractography to the case of multiple fibre orientations. Using automatic relevance determination, we are able to perform online selection of the number of fibre orientations supported by the data at each voxel, simplifying the problem of tracking in a multi-orientation field. We then apply the identical probabilistic algorithm to tractography in the multi- and single-fibre cases in a number of example systems which have previously been tracked successfully or unsuccessfully with single-fibre tractography. We show that multi-fibre tractography offers significant advantages in sensitivity when tracking non-dominant fibre populations, but does not dramatically change tractography results for the dominant pathways.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.09.018

Cites

40 of 40 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The majority of cerebral white matter voxels contain multiple fiber populations with different trajectories.

    “it is now widely recognized that the majority of cerebral white matter voxels contain multiple fiber populations with different trajectories”

    From Potential Pitfalls of Using Fractional Anisotropy, Axial Diffusivity, and Radial Diffusivity as Biomarkers of Cerebral White Matter Microstructure (2022) · cites this paper as Behrens et al., 2007

    The Abstract says that multiple fibre populations occur across large regions of white matter. But Results (Local fitting of the complex fibre model; page unavailable) reports that only one third of voxels with fractional anisotropy above 0.1 supported more than one orientation in the 60-direction dataset. This supports the presence of multiple populations, not the claim that they occur in a majority of cerebral white matter voxels. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • The proportion of cerebral white matter voxels containing complex fiber geometries and/or multiple fiber bundles in different orientations is at least 33%.

    “the proportion of cerebral white matter voxels containing complex fiber geometries and/or multiple fiber bundles in different orientations (i.e., crossing fibers, kissing fibers, etc.) is now thought to be at least 33% (Behrens et al., 2007)”

    From Potential Pitfalls of Using Fractional Anisotropy, Axial Diffusivity, and Radial Diffusivity as Biomarkers of Cerebral White Matter Microstructure (2022) · cites this paper as Behrens et al., 2007

    The Results (Local fitting of the complex fibre model) and Discussion report detectable complex fibre architecture in approximately one third of voxels with fractional anisotropy greater than 0.1 using a 60-direction dataset; page numbers are not supplied. This supports the approximate proportion, but not a lower bound of at least 33% for all cerebral white matter voxels. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Tractography results can vary across the large set of available diffusion models and tractography methods.

    “On one hand, tractography results may vary across the large set of available diffusion models (Afzali et al., 2020; Alexander, 2006; Panagiotaki et al., 2012; Yablonskiy and Sukstanskii, 2010) and tractography methods”
  • The authors recommend probabilistic tractography for examining specific white matter tracts because it is more robust to crossing and kissing fibers.

    “Probabilistic tractography is recommended as it has greatly improved robustness to the many kissing and crossing white matter fibers of the brain (Behrens, Berg, Jbabdi, Rushworth, & Woolrich, 2007).”

    From Substance abuse and white matter: Findings, limitations, and future of diffusion tensor imaging research (2019) · cites this paper as Behrens, Berg, Jbabdi, Rushworth, & Woolrich, 2007

  • Recent advances in modeling of local diffusion properties allow estimation of more than one fiber direction at each voxel, enabling tracing of crossing fibers.

    “Recent advances in modeling of local diffusion properties allow estimation of more than 1 fiber direction at each voxel, enabling tracing of crossing fibers (Behrens et al. 2007)”

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [23]Woolrich M Smith S Hierarchical fully bayesian spatiotemporal analysis of fmri data Proceedings of the 7th Annual Conference on Functional Mapping of the Human Brain Wiley Interscience Brighton, UK 2001
  2. [24]Bernardo JM Smith AFM Bayesian Theory Wiley 2000

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Behrens, T. E. J., Berg, H. J., Jbabdi, S., Rushworth, M. F. S., & Woolrich, M. W.
Affiliations
University of Oxford (GB)
Corresponding author
Behrens, T.E.J.
Venue
NeuroImage
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2007-01
Volume
34
Issue
1
Pages
144-155
ISSN
1053-8119 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2000133863
Cited by
3,471
References
40
Citations by year
2026: 104 · 2025: 160 · 2024: 157 · 2023: 156 · 2022: 224 · 2021: 237 · 2020: 219 · 2019: 250 · 2018: 222 · 2017: 264 · 2016: 214 · 2015: 240 · 2014: 201 · 2013: 222 · 2012: 164
FWCI
48.42
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • NeuroImage (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust (078204)
  • Research Councils UK
  • Medical Research Council
  • Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition › Medical Image Segmentation Techniques
Keywords
automatic relevance determination, online model selection, white matter tractography, diffusion MRI
MeSH terms
Brain, Diffusion, Humans, Neural Pathways, Models, Statistical

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review