Tractography in the clinics: Implementing a pipeline to characterize early brain development

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Developmental Neuroscience
• Medical Physics

Background:

• Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography in neonates is challenging due to low resolution, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and incomplete myelination.
• Fast acquisition protocols used in neonates increase motion artifacts, further compromising tractography reliability.
• Undeveloped white matter in neonates exhibits less constrained water diffusion, complicating structural definition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel post-processing method for reliable DTI tractography in newborns.
• To overcome limitations of current neonatal neuroimaging acquisition protocols.
• To enable quantitative comparison of white matter tract maturation between premature and term infants.

Main Methods:

• Development of a post-processing technique to enhance DTI data quality in neonates.
• Application of the method to neonatal neuroimaging datasets.
• Extraction of limbic, association, and commissural white matter fiber tracts.
• Utilizing geometrical and diffusion-based features for comparative analysis.

Main Results:

• Successfully extracted challenging white matter fiber tracts in neonates, including limbic, association, and commissural fibers.
• Demonstrated the reliability of the developed post-processing method for neonatal tractography.
• Quantified white matter tract maturation by comparing premature and term infants using tract features.

Conclusions:

• The novel post-processing method significantly improves the reliability of DTI tractography in neonates.
• This technique facilitates the study of white matter development and maturation in the neonatal brain.
• The findings provide a quantitative basis for assessing neurodevelopmental trajectories in infants.