首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
   检索      


New Insights into the Developing Rabbit Brain Using Diffusion Tensor Tractography and Generalized q-Sampling MRI
Authors:Seong Yong Lim  Yeu-Sheng Tyan  Yi-Ping Chao  Fang-Yu Nien  Jun-Cheng Weng
Institution:1. School of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.; 2. Department of Medical Imaging, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.; 3. School of Medicine, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.; 4. Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Graduate Institute of Medical Mechatronics, Chang-Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.; National Yang-Ming University, TAIWAN,
Abstract:The use of modern neuroimaging methods to characterize the complex anatomy of brain development at different stages reveals an enormous wealth of information in understanding this highly ordered process and provides clues to detect neurological and neurobehavioral disorders that have their origin in early structural and functional cerebral maturation. Non-invasive diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) is able to distinguish cerebral microscopic structures, especially in the white matter regions. However, DTI is unable to resolve the complicated neural structure, i.e., the fiber crossing that is frequently observed during the maturation process. To overcome this limitation, several methods have been proposed. One such method, generalized q-sampling imaging (GQI), can be applied to a variety of datasets, including the single shell, multi-shell or grid sampling schemes that are believed to be able to resolve the complicated crossing fibers. Rabbits have been widely used for neurodevelopment research because they exhibit human-like timing of perinatal brain white matter maturation. Here, we present a longitudinal study using both DTI and GQI to demonstrate the changes in cerebral maturation of in vivo developing rabbit brains over a period of 40 weeks. Fractional anisotropy (FA) of DTI and generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) of GQI indices demonstrated that the white matter anisotropy increased with age, with GFA exhibiting an increase in the hippocampus as well. Normalized quantitative anisotropy (NQA) of GQI also revealed an increase in the hippocampus, allowing us to observe the changes in gray matter as well. Regional and whole brain DTI tractography also demonstrated refinement in fiber pathway architecture with maturation. We concluded that DTI and GQI results were able to characterize the white matter anisotropy changes, whereas GQI provided further information about the gray matter hippocampus area. This developing rabbit brain DTI and GQI database could also be used for educational purposes and neuroscience investigations.
Keywords:
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号