Probabilistic diffusion tractography with multiple fibre orientations: What can we gain?

TEJ Behrens, HJ Berg, S Jbabdi, MFS Rushworth… - neuroimage, 2007 - Elsevier
neuroimage, 2007Elsevier
We present a direct extension of probabilistic diffusion tractography to the case of multiple
fibre orientations. Using automatic relevance determination, we are able to perform online
selection of the number of fibre orientations supported by the data at each voxel, simplifying
the problem of tracking in a multi-orientation field. We then apply the identical probabilistic
algorithm to tractography in the multi-and single-fibre cases in a number of example systems
which have previously been tracked successfully or unsuccessfully with single-fibre …
We present a direct extension of probabilistic diffusion tractography to the case of multiple fibre orientations. Using automatic relevance determination, we are able to perform online selection of the number of fibre orientations supported by the data at each voxel, simplifying the problem of tracking in a multi-orientation field. We then apply the identical probabilistic algorithm to tractography in the multi- and single-fibre cases in a number of example systems which have previously been tracked successfully or unsuccessfully with single-fibre tractography. We show that multi-fibre tractography offers significant advantages in sensitivity when tracking non-dominant fibre populations, but does not dramatically change tractography results for the dominant pathways.
Elsevier