Stereotaxic white matter atlas based on diffusion tensor imaging in an ICBM template
Introduction
Stereotaxic human brain atlases play an important role in brain research. One of the most widely used atlases is one by Talairach and Tournoux (1988), which is based on histology data from a single subject. The atlas contains a cytoarchitectural map of the cortex through the addition of Brodmann's (1909) map, explaining its wide use for registering, identifying, and reporting human cortical locations in a common coordinate system (Lancaster et al., 2000). A series of probabilistic maps provided by the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) and the International Consortium of Brain Mapping (ICBM) are also widely used (Collins et al., 1994, Evans et al., 1992, Mazziotta et al., 1995). These maps were created by linearly registering a large number of T1-weighted MR images of normal subjects into a common template. These maps have excellent values as a target template for normalization-based group analyses. However, in these existing atlases, the amount of information about white matter anatomy is limited (Toga et al., 2006). This lack of white matter information is understandable because this tissue appears homogeneous in conventional MRI, as well as in histology preparations. Such a lack of anatomical clues, contrary to gyral and sulcal patterns in the cortex, renders identification and delineation of specific white matter locations very difficult.
Diffusion tensor imaging is a relatively new MR modality (Basser et al., 1994a), with which we can visualize various axonal bundles within the white matter, based on orientational information (Catani et al., 2002, Douek et al., 1991, Jellison et al., 2004, Makris et al., 1997, Mori et al., 2002, Nakada and Matsuzawa, 1995, Pajevic and Pierpaoli, 1999, Pierpaoli et al., 1996, Stieltjes et al., 2001). This orientation-based contrast opens up new opportunities to establish a white matter coordinate system and study disease mechanisms or relationship between anatomy and functions of white matter. To understand disease patterns (e.g., the lesion frequency in a specific white matter location) or to correlate these anatomic abnormalities with functional deficits using group statistical analyses, lesion locations must be described by a coordinate system. DTI information can be used to generate “addresses” based on anatomic units in otherwise homogeneous-looking white matter, which is the first step toward the establishment of a white matter functional map similar to cortical functional maps. Establishing a standard coordinate system for white matter and developing tools to utilize it are thus of great importance. In this paper, we introduce a stereotaxic population-averaged white matter atlas, in which we fused DTI-based white matter information with an existing anatomical template (ICBM-152). This atlas is based on tensor maps obtained from 81 normal subjects acquired under an initiative of the International Consortium of Brain Mapping (ICBM). A hand-segmented white matter parcellation map was created from this averaged map, which can be used for automated white matter parcellation. The precision of the affine-based image normalization and automated parcellation was measured for a group of normal subjects using manually defined anatomical landmarks.
Section snippets
Creation of the population-averaged atlas in the ICBM-152 coordinates (ICBM-DTI-81)
DTI data obtained from 81 normal subjects were used for the population-averaged atlas. The data were acquired at the Montreal Neurological Institute (24 cases) and University of California Los Angeles (57 cases) under the International Consortium of Brain Mapping (ICBM) collaboration (M: 42, F: 39, average age: 38. 63 (18–59 years old), right-handed). All studies were obtained on 1.5 T MR units (Siemens, Sonata, VA25 operating system). DT imaging data were acquired by using a single-shot,
Results
Fig. 2 shows the ICBM-152 used as the template in this study (Fig. 2A), and co-registered DTI-derived maps (Figs. 2B–D). The ICBM-152 template is based on T1-weighted images of 152 normal volunteers. While this template is widely used for anatomical and functional MRI studies, it does not provide detailed information about white matter anatomy. The DTI-based atlas created in this study complements this template by providing information about the white matter anatomy in the same standardized
DTI-based atlases for white matter anatomy and brain normalization studies
In the past, several DTI-based, single-subject white matter 3D atlases have been introduced (Catani et al., 2002, Hagmann et al., 2003, Makris et al., 1997, Mori et al., 2005, Pajevic and Pierpaoli, 1999, Stieltjes et al., 2001, Wakana et al., 2005). There are also excellent studies of probabilistic maps of specific white matter tracts (Burgel et al., 2006, Mori et al., 2002, Thottakara et al., 2006). In this paper, a population-averaged stereotaxic atlas of human white matter is introduced. In
Conclusions
In conclusion, we have developed stereotaxic white matter atlases in the ICBM-152 (ICBM-DTI-81) coordinates and the software to utilize the atlas. This atlas can be used to associate white matter lesions to specific white matter structures using stereotaxic coordinates. After normalization of individual MRI images, MR parameters for pre-defined white matter regions are automatically measured by superimposing the WMPM. The registration quality measurements yield excellent results for the normal
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by NIH grants NCRR P41RR15241, U24RR021382, PO1 EB00195 and RO1AG20012. The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) is a component of the National Institute of Health (NIH). The contents of this paper are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NCRR or NIH. We would like to thank Dr. Alai Zhan for helping us to measure inter-rater reproducibility. Dr. Peter C.M. van Zijl is a paid lecturer for Philips
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