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Abstract #3163

Reconstructing Cerebellar-Cortical Connections with Advanced Diffusion Tractography

Fulvia Palesi1, 2, Donald Tournier3, 4, Fernando Calamante, 45, Niels Muhlert6, Gloria Castellazzi, 27, Declan T. Chard6, Egidio Ugo D'Angelo, 28, Claudia Angela M. Wheeler-Kingshott6

1Department of Physics, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; 2Brain Connectivity Center, IRCCS C. Mondino, Pavia, Italy; 3Melbourne Brain Centre - Austin Campus, The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia; 4Department of Medicine, Austin Health and Northern Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia; 5Melbourne Brain Centre - Austin Campus, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia; 6NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom; 7Department of Industrial and Information Engineering, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy; 8Department of Public Health, Neuroscience, Experimental Medicine, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy

The study of cerebellums connectivity networks is challenging. This study assessed the feasibility of using advanced diffusion imaging methods to reconstruct whole contralateral cerebellar-cortical tracts in vivo. We combined two techniques: track reconstruction with constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD) algorithm and seed/target placement through the creation of super-resolution maps using track density imaging (TDI). We reconstructed tracts by placing ROIs both on b0 and TDI images: tracts appeared more anatomically accurate when using TDI maps rather than b0 images and inter-subject variability of cerebellar FA was found to be more reproducible when using ROIs placed on TDI.

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Keywords

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