Can Structural Connectivity Studies Be Performed in Children with Servere Ataxias?

Stephen Rose¹, Kerstin Pannek, Kate Sinclair², Martin Lavin³

Structural connectivity studies employing diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI) and probabilistic tractography can provide new insight into the loss in integrity of important white matter (WM) motor pathways. However, such imaging studies in children with severe ataxias present a significant challenge, due to the likelihood of artifacts induced by involuntary head movement. To overcome this constraint, we have developed an image processing strategy to reduce such effects and present novel information about the degeneration of specific cerebellar-corticomotor pathways in children with ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T). Such information improves our understanding of the clinical phenotype in A-T.