Mapping topographic structure in white matter pathways with level set trees

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 8;9(4):e93344. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093344. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Fiber tractography on diffusion imaging data offers rich potential for describing white matter pathways in the human brain, but characterizing the spatial organization in these large and complex data sets remains a challenge. We show that level set trees--which provide a concise representation of the hierarchical mode structure of probability density functions--offer a statistically-principled framework for visualizing and analyzing topography in fiber streamlines. Using diffusion spectrum imaging data collected on neurologically healthy controls (N = 30), we mapped white matter pathways from the cortex into the striatum using a deterministic tractography algorithm that estimates fiber bundles as dimensionless streamlines. Level set trees were used for interactive exploration of patterns in the endpoint distributions of the mapped fiber pathways and an efficient segmentation of the pathways that had empirical accuracy comparable to standard nonparametric clustering techniques. We show that level set trees can also be generalized to model pseudo-density functions in order to analyze a broader array of data types, including entire fiber streamlines. Finally, resampling methods show the reliability of the level set tree as a descriptive measure of topographic structure, illustrating its potential as a statistical descriptor in brain imaging analysis. These results highlight the broad applicability of level set trees for visualizing and analyzing high-dimensional data like fiber tractography output.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Algorithms*
  • Brain / anatomy & histology
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping / methods*
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / physiology
  • Neural Pathways / anatomy & histology
  • Neural Pathways / physiology
  • Probability
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

This research was sponsored by the Army Research Laboratory and was accomplished under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-10-2-0022. The views and conclusions contained in this document are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of the Army Research Laboratory or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright notation herein. This research was also supported by NSF CAREER grant DMS 114967. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.