Abstract #1673

Atlas-Guided Automated Tract Reconstruction of the White Matter Anatomy

Yajing Zhang¹, Kenichi Oishi², Michael I. Miller³, Jiangyang Zhang⁴, Susumu Mori^2,5

¹Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ³Center for Imaging Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁴Radiology and Radiological Science, , Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁵F.M.Kirby Resarch Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States

We performed comprehensive studies of human white matter anatomy using a novel atlas based automated fiber tracking system. 130 3-D ROIs were transformed from our brain atlas to the individual subject using non-linear transformations and used for automated fiber tracking. This approach allows exhaustive search of white matter bundles that consistently exist in the normal population. The method was validated by comparing to manual results by experts. We identified 29 short cortico-cortical association fibers in addition to well-defined major bundles. Probabilistic maps of such tracts in normalized space were constructed for the first time in the normal population.