NeuroImage
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Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging provides structural information about nerve fiber tissue. The first eigenvector of the diffusion tensor is aligned with the nerve fibers, i.e., longitudinally in the spinal cord. The underlying hypothesis of this study is that the presence of collateral nerve fibers running orthogonal to the longitudinal fibers results in an orderly arrangement of the second eigenvectors. ⋯ The second eigenvector directions exhibited a striking arrangement, consistent with the distribution of interconnecting collateral nerve fibers discerned on the histology section. This finding was confirmed for the specimen by quantitative pixel-wise comparison of second eigenvector directions and collateral fiber directions assessed on light microscopy image data. Diffusion tensor MRI can reveal non-invasively and in great detail the intricate fiber architecture of the human spinal cord.
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In the primate brain, visual spatial representations express distances of objects with regard to different references. In the parietal cortex, distances are thought to be represented with respect to the body (egocentric representation) and in superior temporal cortices with respect to other objects, independent of the observer (allocentric representation). However, these representations of space are interdependent, complicating such distinctions. ⋯ During egocentric judgments, the irrelevant background influenced activity in the posterior commissure and the medial temporal gyrus. SPL activity was unaffected by the irrelevant background during egocentric judgments. Sensitivity to spatial perceptual biases is apparently limited to occipito-temporal areas, subserving the observed biased cognitive reports of location, and is not found in parietal areas, subserving unbiased goal-directed actions.
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Spatial specificity of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) signals to sub-millimeter functional architecture remains controversial. To investigate this issue, high-resolution fMRI in response to visual stimulus was obtained in isoflurane-anesthetized cats at 9.4 T using conventional gradient-echo (GE) and spin-echo (SE) techniques; blood oxygenation-level dependent (BOLD) and cerebral blood volume (CBV)-weighted data were acquired without and with injection of 10 mg Fe/kg monocrystalline iron oxide nanoparticles (MION), respectively. Studies after MION injection at two SE times show that the T2' contribution to SE fMRI is minimal. ⋯ It is well known that GE CBV-weighted fMRI detects a volume change in vessels of all sizes, while SE CBV-weighted fMRI is heavily weighted toward microvascular changes. Peak CBV change of 10% at the middle of the cortex in GE measurements was 1.8 times higher than that in SE measurements, indicating that CBV changes occur predominantly for vasculature connecting the intracortical vessels and capillaries. Our data supports the notion of laminar-dependent CBV regulation at a sub-millimeter scale.
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Functional neuronavigation allows intraoperative visualization of cortical eloquent brain areas. Major white matter tracts, such as the pyramidal tract, can be delineated by diffusion-tensor-imaging based fiber tracking. These tractography data were integrated into 3-D datasets applied for neuronavigation by rigid registration of the diffusion images with standard anatomical image data so that their course could be superimposed onto the surgical field during resection of gliomas. ⋯ In none of the 19 patients new postoperative neurological deficits were encountered. Intraoperative visualization of major white matter tracts allows save resection of gliomas near eloquent brain areas. A possible shifting of the pyramidal tract has to be taken into account after major tumor parts are resected.
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The human infant is particularly immature at birth and brain maturation, with the myelination of white matter fibers, is protracted until adulthood. Diffusion tensor imaging offers the possibility to describe non invasively the fascicles spatial organization at an early stage and to follow the cerebral maturation with quantitative parameters that might be correlated with behavioral development. Here, we assessed the feasibility to study the organization and maturation of major white matter bundles in eighteen 1- to 4-month-old healthy infants, using a specific acquisition protocol customized to the immature brain (with 15 orientations of the diffusion gradients and a 700 s mm(-2)b factor). ⋯ This mapping allows us to propose a new method of quantification based on reconstructed tracts, split between specific regions, which should be more sensitive to specific changes in a bundle than the conventional approach, based on regions-of-interest. We observed variations in fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity over the considered developmental period in most bundles (corpus callosum, cerebellar peduncles, cortico-spinal tract, spino-thalamic tract, capsules, radiations, longitudinal and uncinate fascicles, cingulum). The results are in good agreement with the known stages of white matter maturation and myelination, and the proposed approach might provide important insights on brain development.