Neda Jahanshad1, Iman Aganj2,
Christophe Lenglet2,3, Guillermo Sapiro2, Arthur W.
Toga1, Katie L. McMahon4, Greig I. de Zubicaray5,
Nicholas G. Martin6, Margaret J. Wright6, Paul M.
Thompson1
1Laboratory of Neuro
Imaging, Department of Neurology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States; 2Department
of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, MN, United States; 3Center for Magnetic Resonance
Research, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, United
States; 4Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland,
Brisbane, Australia; 5School of Psychology, University of
Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; 6Queensland Institute of Medical
Research, Brisbane, Australia
Cortical fiber connectivity, assessed with diffusion-based tractography, has great potential for investigating how the normal and diseased brains are organized. Connectivity patterns may differ between men and women, contributing to sex differences in normal developmental and cognitive traits. In one of the largest-ever HARDI tractography studies, we analyzed cortical connectivity in 234 young adults. We use a novel Hough transform based full brain tractography method to trace the connections within and between 35 cortical surface regions in each hemisphere. We discovered sex differences in regional connection densities. We also find that EPI distortion correction affected the results.