Automatic clustering and population analysis of white matter tracts using maximum density paths

Gautam Prasad; Shantanu H Joshi; Neda Jahanshad; Julio Villalon-Reina; Iman Aganj; Christophe Lenglet; Guillermo Sapiro; Katie L McMahon; Greig I de Zubicaray; Nicholas G Martin; Margaret J Wright; Arthur W Toga; Paul M Thompson

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.04.033

Automatic clustering and population analysis of white matter tracts using maximum density paths

Neuroimage. 2014 Aug 15:97:284-95. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.04.033. Epub 2014 Apr 18.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Imaging Genetics Center, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
² Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³ Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Radiology Department, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
⁵ Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Duke University, NC, USA; Dept. of Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, NC, USA.
⁶ Center for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁷ School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
⁸ QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Herston, Australia.
⁹ School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Herston, Australia.
¹⁰ Imaging Genetics Center, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Dept. of Neurology, Psychiatry, Engineering, Radiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Dept. of Ophthalmology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹¹ Imaging Genetics Center, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Laboratory of Neuro Imaging, Institute for Neuroimaging & Informatics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Neurology, University of California Los Angeles, CA, USA; Dept. of Neurology, Psychiatry, Engineering, Radiology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Dept. of Ophthalmology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: pthomp@usc.edu.

Abstract

We introduce a framework for population analysis of white matter tracts based on diffusion-weighted images of the brain. The framework enables extraction of fibers from high angular resolution diffusion images (HARDI); clustering of the fibers based partly on prior knowledge from an atlas; representation of the fiber bundles compactly using a path following points of highest density (maximum density path; MDP); and registration of these paths together using geodesic curve matching to find local correspondences across a population. We demonstrate our method on 4-Tesla HARDI scans from 565 young adults to compute localized statistics across 50 white matter tracts based on fractional anisotropy (FA). Experimental results show increased sensitivity in the determination of genetic influences on principal fiber tracts compared to the tract-based spatial statistics (TBSS) method. Our results show that the MDP representation reveals important parts of the white matter structure and considerably reduces the dimensionality over comparable fiber matching approaches.

Keywords: Atlas; Brain; Clustering; Connectivity; Curve registration; Dijkstra; Geodesic distance; HARDI; Hough; Longest path; MRI; Maximum density path; Shortest path; Tractography.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Anisotropy
Cluster Analysis
Diffusion Tensor Imaging / methods*
Female
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / methods*
Male
Nerve Fibers
Neural Pathways / anatomy & histology
Neural Pathways / cytology
Reproducibility of Results
White Matter / anatomy & histology*
White Matter / cytology
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding