Journal article
Limits to anatomical accuracy of diffusion tractography using modern approaches
Vanderbilt University1
Cardiff University2
Harvard University3
Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark4
Visual Computing, Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark5
Danish Research Centre for Magnetic Resonance6
University of Pennsylvania7
National Institutes of Health8
German Cancer Research Center9
University of Southern California10
University of Verona11
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne12
University of Lausanne13
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill14
Southern Medical University15
Université de Sherbrooke16
...and 6 moreDiffusion MRI fiber tractography is widely used to probe the structural connectivity of the brain, with a range of applications in both clinical and basic neuroscience. Despite widespread use, tractography has well-known pitfalls that limits the anatomical accuracy of this technique. Numerous modern methods have been developed to address these shortcomings through advances in acquisition, modeling, and computation.
To test whether these advances improve tractography accuracy, we organized the 3-D Validation of Tractography with Experimental MRI (3D-VoTEM) challenge at the ISBI 2018 conference. We made available three unique independent tractography validation datasets – a physical phantom and two ex vivo brain specimens - resulting in 176 distinct submissions from 9 research groups.
By comparing results over a wide range of fiber complexities and algorithmic strategies, this challenge provides a more comprehensive assessment of tractography's inherent limitations than has been reported previously. The central results were consistent across all sub-challenges in that, despite advances in tractography methods, the anatomical accuracy of tractography has not dramatically improved in recent years.
Taken together, our results independently confirm findings from decades of tractography validation studies, demonstrate inherent limitations in reconstructing white matter pathways using diffusion MRI data alone, and highlight the need for alternative or combinatorial strategies to accurately map the fiber pathways of the brain.
Language: | English |
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Year: | 2019 |
Pages: | 1-11 |
ISSN: | 10959572 and 10538119 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.10.029 |
ORCIDs: | Dyrby, Tim B. |