Brain local structural connectomes and the subtypes of the medial temporal lobe parcellations

To investigate the quantitative characteristics and major subtypes of local structural connectomes for medial temporal lobe (MTL) parcellations.

The Q-Space Diffeomorphic Reconstruction (QSDR) method was used to track white matter fibers for the ROIs within MTL based on the integrating high-resolution T1 structural MR imaging and diffusion MR imaging of 100 adult Chinese individuals. Graph theoretical analysis was employed to construct the local structural connectome models for ROIs within MTL and acquire the network parameters. These connectivity matrices of these connectomes were classified into major subtypes undergoing hierarchical clustering.

(1) In the local brain connectomes, the overall network features exhibited a low characteristic path length paired with moderate to high global efficiency, suggesting the effectiveness of the local brain connectome construction. The amygdala connectomes exhibited longer characteristic path length and weaker global efficiency than the ipsilateral hippocampus and parahippocampal connectomes. (2) The hubs of the amygdala connectomes were dispersed across the ventral frontal, olfactory area, limbic, parietal regions and subcortical nuclei, and the hubs the hippocampal connectomes were mainly situated within the limbic, parietal, and subcortical regions. The hubs distribution of the parahippocampal connectomes resembled the hippocampal structural connectomes, but lacking interhemispheric connections and connectivity with subcortical nuclei. (3) The subtypes of the brain local structural connectomes for each ROI were classified by hierarchical clustering, The subtypes of the bilateral amygdala connectomes were the amygdala-prefrontal connectome; the amygdala-ipsilateral or contralateral limbic connectome and the amygdala-posterior connectome. The subtypes of the bilateral hippocampal connectomes primarily included the hippocampus-ipsilateral or contralateral limbic connectome and the anterior temporal-hippocampus-ventral temporal-occipital connectome in the domain hemisphere. The subtypes of the parahippocampal connectomes exhibited resemblances to those of the hippocampus.

We have constructed the brain local connectomes of the MTL parcellations and acquired the network parameters to delineate the hubs distribution through graph theory analysis. The connectomes can be classified into different major subtypes, which were closely related to the functional connectivity.