Fiber Tractography in Healthy Adolescents: An Automated Approach

Ryan L. Muetzel^1,2, Paul F. Collins¹, Bryon A. Mueller², Kelvin O. Lim², Monica Luciana¹

Adolescent brain development has been studied using conventional imaging methods and, more recently, diffusion tensor imaging. Traditional fiber tracking analyses require manually defined seed regions, which can be labor-intensive and can also lead to rater bias. In the present study, we use a fully-automated tractography method to generate white matter tracts in a sample of 144 healthy individuals ages 9-23. Significant correlations between age and mean fractional anisotropy were observed in the cingulum bundle, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and superior longitudinal fasciculus. The data suggest the method used is sensitive to the subtle age-related changes in white matter in this population.