Abstract #1247

Probabilistic structural atlas of human lateral parabrachial nucleus, medial parabrachial nucleus and vestibular nuclei complex using in vivo 7 Tesla MRI.

Kavita Singh¹, Iole Indovina^2,3, Jeffrey P Staab^4,5, and Marta Bianciardi¹

¹Brainstem Imaging Lab, Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States, ²Laboratory of Neuromotor Physiology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy, ³Centre of Space BioMedicine, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, ⁴Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States, ⁵Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, United States

Parabrachial and vestibular nuclei are anatomically and functionally connected brainstem gray-matter structures involved in autonomic and vestibular functions. Their assessment in research and clinical investigations is difficult due to limited image-resolution/contrast of clinical scanners and the absence of probabilistic atlas of these structures. We delineated these nuclei in single-subject multi-contrast 1.1mm-resolution 7Tesla MRI of healthy humans and generated a validated in-vivo probabilistic atlas of these nuclei in stereotaxic space. Upon coregistration to clinical-MRI, this atlas might improve the evaluation of lesions and assessment of connectivity-pathways underlying autonomic and vestibular mechanisms in a broad-set of clinical conditions relating to these nuclei.

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