Quantitative metrics commonly derived from diffusion tractography covary with streamline length: a characterization and method of adjustment.

ABSTRACT: Tractography algorithms are used extensively to delineate white matter structures, by operating on the voxel-wise information generated through the application of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) or other models to diffusion weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Through statistical modelling, we demonstrate that these methods commonly yield substantial and systematic associations between streamline length and several tractography derived quantitative metrics, such as fractional anisotropy (FA). These associations may be described as piecewise linear. For streamlines shorter than an inflection point (determined for a group of tracts delineated for each individual brain), estimates of FA exhibit a positive linear relation with streamline length. For streamlines longer than the p

SUBMITTER: Carson RG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11611944 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature