Tract-based morphometry

Donnell LJO, Westin CF, Golby AJ. Tract-based morphometry. Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2007;10(Pt 2):161–8.

Abstract

Multisubject statistical analyses of diffusion tensor images in regions of specific white matter tracts have commonly measured only the mean value of a scalar invariant such as the fractional anisotropy (FA), ignoring the spatial variation of FA along the length of fiber tracts. We propose to instead perform tract-based morphometry (TBM), or the statistical analysis of diffusion MRI data in an anatomical tract-based coordinate system. We present a method for automatic generation of white matter tract arc length parameterizations, based on learning a fiber bundle model from tractography from multiple subjects. Our tract-based coordinate system enables TBM for the detection of white matter differences in groups of subjects. We present example TBM results from a study of interhemispheric differences in FA.
Last updated on 02/24/2023