Q-ball of inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and beyond.
Open accessAbstract
The inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) is historically described as the longest associative bundle in the human brain and it connects various parts of the occipital cortex, temporo-basal area and the superior parietal lobule to the frontal lobe through the external/extreme capsule complex. The exact functional role and the detailed anatomical definition of the IFOF are still under debate within the scientific community. In this study we present a fiber tracking dissection of the right and left IFOF by using a q-ball residual-bootstrap reconstruction of High-Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) data sets in 20 healthy subjects. By defining a single seed region of interest on the coronal fractional anisotropy (FA) color map of each subject, we investigated all the pathways connecting the parietal, occipital and posterior temporal cortices to the frontal lobe through the external/extreme capsule. In line with recent post-mortem dissection studies we found more extended anterior-posterior association connections than the "classical" fronto-occipital representation of the IFOF. In particular the pathways we evidenced showed: a) diffuse projections in the frontal lobe, b) fronto-parietal lobes connections trough the external capsule in almost all the subjects and c) widespread connections in the posterior regions. Our study represents the first consistent in vivo demonstration across a large group of individuals of these novel anterior and posterior terminations of the IFOF detailed described only by post-mortem anatomical dissection. Furthermore our work establishes the feasibility of consistent in vivo mapping of this architecture with independent in vivo methodologies. In conclusion q-ball tractography dissection supports a more complex definition of IFOF, which includes several subcomponents likely underlying specific function.
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Only one tractography study has examined the cortical terminations of the IFOF in a group of 20 subjects, confirming some of the more extensive projections described inconsistently in the literature, in particular within the parietal lobe.
“only one tractography study has examined the cortical terminations of the IFOF in a group (20 subjects) confirming some of the more extensive projections described inconsistently thus far in the literature, in particular within the parietal lobe (Caverzasi et al., 2014).”
From Cortical Terminations of the Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Uncinate Fasciculi: Anatomical Stem-Based Virtual Dissection (2016) · cites this paper as Caverzasi et al., 2014
The study confirmed frontal IFOF terminations within the inferior frontal and lateral and medial fronto-orbital gyri, and also in the superior and middle frontal gyri.
“Our study first confirmed frontal IFOF terminations within the inferior frontal and lateral and medial fronto-orbital gyri corresponding to the conventional IFOF definition, but also in the superior and middle frontal gyri”
From Cortical Terminations of the Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Uncinate Fasciculi: Anatomical Stem-Based Virtual Dissection (2016) · cites this paper as Caverzasi et al., 2014
Projections to the lingual gyrus were observed in almost all subjects, consistent with Caverzasi et al. (2014), but Martino et al. (2010) reported no projections to the lingual gyrus and considered them part of the optic radiations.
“Projections to the lingual gyrus were observed in almost all subjects consistent with Caverzasi et al. (2014), however, Martino et al. (2010) reported no projections to the lingual gyrus and instead considered them as part of the optic radiations.”
From Cortical Terminations of the Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Uncinate Fasciculi: Anatomical Stem-Based Virtual Dissection (2016) · cites this paper as Caverzasi et al. (2014)
Superior parietal IFOF terminations were observed in the majority of subjects, consistent with Martino et al. (2010), and less frequently in the angular gyrus, in contrast to Caverzasi et al. (2014).
“We observed superior parietal IFOF terminations in the majority of the subjects consistent with dissection [Martino et al. (2010) reported parietal connections in 9 out of 14 hemispheres], and less frequently in the angular gyrus in contrast to Caverzasi et al. (2014) who reported it in 100% of subjects.”
From Cortical Terminations of the Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Uncinate Fasciculi: Anatomical Stem-Based Virtual Dissection (2016) · cites this paper as Caverzasi et al. (2014)
Projections to the cuneus were infrequent in the right hemisphere (15% vs. 38% in the left hemisphere), showing the opposite pattern of Caverzasi et al. (2014).
“Projections to the cuneus were infrequent in the right hemisphere (present in 15 vs. 38% in the left hemisphere) showing the opposite pattern of Caverzasi et al. (2014)”
From Cortical Terminations of the Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Uncinate Fasciculi: Anatomical Stem-Based Virtual Dissection (2016) · cites this paper as Caverzasi et al. (2014)
Neither the superior temporal nor the middle temporal gyri were reported previously by Caverzasi et al. (2014).
“Neither the superior temporal nor the middle temporal gyri were reported previously (Caverzasi et al., 2014).”
From Cortical Terminations of the Inferior Fronto-Occipital and Uncinate Fasciculi: Anatomical Stem-Based Virtual Dissection (2016) · cites this paper as Caverzasi et al., 2014
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“…(Catani et al., 2002), only one tractography study has examined the cortical terminations of the IFOF in a group (20 subjects) confirming some of the more extensive projections described inconsistently thus far in the literature, in particular within the parietal lobe (Caverzasi et al., 2014).”
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- Authors
- Caverzasi, E., Papinutto, N., Amirbekian, B., Berger, M. S., & Henry, R. G.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Caverzasi, Eduardo
- Venue
- PLoS ONE
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2014-06-19
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- e100274
- ISSN
- 1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4063757
- OpenAlex
- W2142143370
- Cited by
- 97
- References
- 9
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 3
- FWCI
- 8.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (NS066654)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (R01NS066654)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Functional Brain Connectivity Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, external capsule, extreme capsule, posterior temporal cortex, occipital cortex, fractional anisotropy
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Female, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Male, Occipital Lobe, Imaging, Three-Dimensional
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