TY - JOUR
T1 - SIFT2
T2 - Enabling dense quantitative assessment of brain white matter connectivity using streamlines tractography
AU - Smith, Robert E.
AU - Tournier, Jacques Donald
AU - Calamante, Fernando
AU - Connelly, Alan
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - Diffusion MRI streamlines tractography allows for the investigation of the brain white matter pathways non-invasively. However a fundamental limitation of this technology is its non-quantitative nature, i.e. the density of reconstructed connections is not reflective of the density of underlying white matter fibres. As a solution to this problem, we have previously published the "spherical-deconvolution informed filtering of tractograms (SIFT)" method, which determines a subset of the streamlines reconstruction such that the streamlines densities throughout the white matter are as close as possible to fibre densities estimated using the spherical deconvolution diffusion model; this permits the use of streamline count as a valid biological marker of connection density. Particular aspects of its performance may have however limited its uptake in the diffusion MRI research community. Here we present an alternative to this method, entitled SIFT2, which provides a more logically direct and computationally efficient solution to the streamlines connectivity quantification problem: by determining an appropriate cross-sectional area multiplier for each streamline rather than removing streamlines altogether, biologically accurate measures of fibre connectivity are obtained whilst making use of the complete streamlines reconstruction.
AB - Diffusion MRI streamlines tractography allows for the investigation of the brain white matter pathways non-invasively. However a fundamental limitation of this technology is its non-quantitative nature, i.e. the density of reconstructed connections is not reflective of the density of underlying white matter fibres. As a solution to this problem, we have previously published the "spherical-deconvolution informed filtering of tractograms (SIFT)" method, which determines a subset of the streamlines reconstruction such that the streamlines densities throughout the white matter are as close as possible to fibre densities estimated using the spherical deconvolution diffusion model; this permits the use of streamline count as a valid biological marker of connection density. Particular aspects of its performance may have however limited its uptake in the diffusion MRI research community. Here we present an alternative to this method, entitled SIFT2, which provides a more logically direct and computationally efficient solution to the streamlines connectivity quantification problem: by determining an appropriate cross-sectional area multiplier for each streamline rather than removing streamlines altogether, biologically accurate measures of fibre connectivity are obtained whilst making use of the complete streamlines reconstruction.
KW - Diffusion
KW - Magnetic resonance imaging
KW - SIFT
KW - Streamlines
KW - Structural connectivity
KW - Tractography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84937776325&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.06.092
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.06.092
M3 - Article
C2 - 26163802
AN - SCOPUS:84937776325
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 119
SP - 338
EP - 351
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
ER -