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Abstract #3278

Structural and functional connectivity of the ipsilateral or nondecussating dentato-rubro-thalamic tract

Kalen Petersen1, Jacqueline Reid2, Srijata Chakravorti3, Meher Juttukonda4, Giulia Franco1, Paula Trujillo-Diaz1, Adam Stark1, Benoit Dawant3, Manus J. Donahue4, and Daniel O. Claassen1

1Neurology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States, 2Meharry Medical College, Nashville, TN, United States, 3Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States, 4Radiology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States

The dentato-rubro-thalamic tract (DRTT) is a cerebellar efferent pathway important to normal motor function and neurological disease. While the DRTT is described as a decussating (crossing) pathway, the existence of a nondecussating DRTT was recently demonstrated. We compared thalamic connectivity of decussating and nondecussating DRTT using both structural and functional MRI. Probabilistic tractography indicated that the two pathways contact distinct but partially overlapping sets of thalamic nuclei. These results were reinforced by significant correlations with functional connectivity. We conclude that the decussating and nondecussating DRTT exhibit different connectivity patterns, which suggests participation in divergent neural networks.

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