Assessment of functional and structural connectivity between motor cortex and thalamus using fMRI and DWI

• Main Authors: Ansari, A. H. J., Oghabian, M. A., Hossein-Zadeh, G. A.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brain; Correlation; Diffusion tensor imaging; Humans; Optical fiber networks; Optical fiber theory
• ISSN: 1094-687X; 1558-4615; 2694-0604
• DOI: 10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091252

Connectivity evaluations have been performed in a noninvasive manner by examining resting state fMRI alongside diffusion-weighted images (DWI). The spatial structures of coherent spontaneous BOLD fluctuations provided the most convincing preliminary evidence that the BOLD signal was predominantly of neuronal origin rather than non-neuronal, artifactual noise. In this study we have shown that in thalamocortical network, the results of functional connectivity analysis and DWI correspond well with each other, thereby providing cross-validation of the two techniques. We have used the resting state fMRI data of 3 subjects with 10 minute resting state functional images via a 3T Siemens scanner. we used cross correlation for functional analysis and reported thalamocortical results with pvalue=0.01 and cluster size=100, Then showed corresponding tracts connecting premotor cortex and thalamus. In addition, both techniques correspond well to histological delineation and invasive tract tracing, which provides a `gold standard' validation of the two techniques. The degree of structural connectivity has been shown to correlate with the strength of functional connectivity, thereby providing a potentially straightforward structural explanation for many of the changes in functional connectivity in disease states.