Diffusion Spectrum Imaging: New ways of reconstructing

long-range connections in the brain

Presented by Sophia Larriva with work by Alex Asturias, Viktoriya Babenko, Matt Cieslak, Celine Mol, and Scott Grafton, PhD.

What is all this?• Brain has many overlapping connections

• Neurons• White matter

• Different connections are different!

Split Brain: Corpus Callosum

Left Lateral Occipital to Left Inferior Temporal

• Diffusion MRI looks at water movement

• Constrained by axon bundles

• Maps out connections (speech, visual pathways, etc.)

• Clinical uses for strokes and certain types of injuries

Right Superior Parietal to Brain

Stem

Some Background

Recent InnovationsDTI scan

2007 DSI scan 2015 DSI scan• Scan time=

under 20 minutes• Can determine

directions for crossing fiber tracts

• Multi-band imaging protocols

• Scan time= 6 minutes

• Cannot resolve crossing fibers

• More variability in results interpretations

• Scan time= 1 hour

• Determine directions for crossing fiber tracts

• Single-band imaging protocols

A Comparison of Scans• Center for Magnetic Resonance Research at University of

Minnesota (CMRR)• Siemens Corporation

• Examined differences in signal quality

ResultsCMRR Wins! (almost outright)

Neuronal fiber tracts (axons) where Siemens appeared better were statistically insignificant/not real

Right Paracentral Gyrus to Left Paracentral Gyrus

Right Entorhinal Cortex to Brain Stem

What Now?Potential Clinical Uses

• Surgery• Monitoring Fetal Development• Stroke Patients

References

-http://definingsolutions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/split-brain.gif-http://www.cguy.net/wireless_networking_guide/images/p2p%20connection.jpg-http://www.humanconnectome.org/img/art/pulse-sequences-fig3.png-http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/MCA-Stroke-Brain-Human-2.JPG-http://www.h3dwallpapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Cute_baby_pics.jpg-http://www.the-scientist.com/Nov2014/whitematter2.jpg

Thank You!