Quantitative Histological Validation of Diffusion MRI Fiber Orientation Distributions in the Rat Brain
Open Access
- 7 January 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Public Library of Science (PLoS) in PLOS ONE
- Vol. 5 (1), e8595
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008595
Abstract
Diffusion MRI (dMRI) is widely used to measure microstructural features of brain white matter, but commonly used dMRI measures have limited capacity to resolve the orientation structure of complex fiber architectures. While several promising new approaches have been proposed, direct quantitative validation of these methods against relevant histological architectures remains missing. In this study, we quantitatively compare neuronal fiber orientation distributions (FODs) derived from ex vivo dMRI data against histological measurements of rat brain myeloarchitecture using manual recordings of individual myelin stained fiber orientations. We show that accurate FOD estimates can be obtained from dMRI data, even in regions with complex architectures of crossing fibers with an intrinsic orientation error of approximately 5–6 degrees in these regions. The reported findings have implications for both clinical and research studies based on dMRI FOD measures, and provide an important biological benchmark for improved FOD reconstruction and fiber tracking methods.Keywords
This publication has 55 references indexed in Scilit:
- Optimal diffusion MRI acquisition for fiber orientation density estimation: An analytic approachHuman Brain Mapping, 2009
- In vivo measurement of axon diameter distribution in the corpus callosum of rat brainBrain, 2009
- A Bayesian framework to identify principal intravoxel diffusion profiles based on diffusion-weighted MR imagingNeuroImage, 2008
- Resolving crossing fibres using constrained spherical deconvolution: Validation using diffusion-weighted imaging phantom dataNeuroImage, 2008
- Just pretty pictures? What diffusion tractography can add in clinical neuroscienceCurrent Opinion in Neurology, 2006
- Validation ofq-ball imaging with a diffusion fibre-crossing phantom on a clinical scannerPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2005
- Fiber tracking: principles and strategies – a technical reviewNMR in Biomedicine, 2002
- Self-diffusion NMR imaging using stimulated echoesJournal of Magnetic Resonance (1969), 1985
- The spatial mapping of translational diffusion coefficients by the NMR imaging techniquePhysics in Medicine & Biology, 1985
- The organization and postnatal development of the commissural projection of the rat somatic sensory cortexJournal of Comparative Neurology, 1976