Abstract #0328

Combining Structural and Funcional Connectivity Techniques to Characterize the Thalamo-Cortical Networks in vivo

Chiara Mastropasqua¹,², Marco Bozzali³, Giacomo Koch⁴,⁵, Carlo Caltagirone⁶, Mara Cercignani,¹⁷

¹Neuroimaging Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy; ²Dep of Neuroscience, Trieste University, Trieste, Italy; ³Neuroimaging Laboratory, Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy; ⁴Department of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy; ⁵Stroke Unit, Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy; ⁶Department of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy; ⁷Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, Falmer, United Kingdom

Our aim is to validate precedent approach for thalamic parcellation based on probabilistic tractography and to compare structural and functional connectivity between the thalamus and the cerebral cortex. We used DTI tractography to define distinct thalamic nuclei connected to different cortical areas. Seed-based RS-fMRI was then performed to identify the cortical areas more strongly connected with thalamic nuclei previously obtained. The results were visually compared to cross-validate these 2 commonly used approaches to assess anatomical and functional connectivity. Our results confirm the reproducibility of thalamic parcellation based on probabilistic tractography and show that these two methods yield partially consistent results.