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Updated: Jun 26, 2026
Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging in the Analysis of Neurodegenerative Diseases
Published on: July 28, 2013
Microstructural Mapping of Neural Pathways in Alzheimer's Disease using Macrostructure-Informed Normative Tractometry
Yixue Feng1, Bramsh Q Chandio1, Julio E Villalon-Reina1
1Imaging Genetics Center, Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Marina del Rey, CA, United States.
Introduction:
Diffusion MRI is sensitive to the microstructural properties of brain tissues, and shows great promise in detecting the effects of degenerative diseases. However, many approaches analyze single measures averaged over regions of interest, without considering the underlying fiber geometry.
Methods:
Here, we propose a novel Macrostructure-Informed Normative Tractometry (MINT) framework, to investigate how white matter microstructure and macrostructure are jointly altered in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia. We compare MINT-derived metrics with univariate metrics from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), to examine how fiber geometry may impact interpretation of microstructure.
Results:
In two multi-site cohorts from North America and India, we find consistent patterns of microstructural and macrostructural anomalies implicated in MCI and dementia; we also rank diffusion metrics' sensitivity to dementia.
Discussion:
We show that MINT, by jointly modeling tract shape and microstructure, has potential to disentangle and better interpret the effects of degenerative disease on the brain's neural pathways.
