Projects:FractionalAnisotropyOfTheCorpusCallosumAndAnteriorCommissure

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Objective: To use DTI to quantify the integrity of interhemispheric connectivity in schizophrenic patients, by measuring fractional anisotropy (FA) and other diffusion measures in both corpus collosum (CC) and anterior commissure (AC) fibers. To the best of our knowledge, no previous study has analyzed diffusion measures along the anterior commissure.

Progress: We have implemented a scanning protocol by which we obtain several midline sagittal slices, allowing high resolution data of both the midsagittal corpus callosum and the anterior commisure. Preliminary results (methods currently being improved) indicate decreased FA in the midsagittal corpus callosum in schizophrenics, and decreased overall diffusivity in both the corpus callosum and anterior commisure. We are currently utilizing fiber tracking in these structures to calculate FA (and other diffusion measures) along both CC and AC fibers. We are considering using smoothed data to create these fibers. We are also using automatic clustering to separate anatomically similar fibers, and compare diffusion measures along fibers extending to different brain regions.

Key Investigators:

• Marek Kubicki, BWH
• Lauren O'Donnell, MIT
• Mark Dreusicke, BWH
• Doug Markant, BWH
• Carl-Fredrik Westin, BWH
• Martha Shenton, BWH

Links:

• Progress on improving the method used to create corpus callosum ROIs here.
• Images of corpus callosum fibers using smoothed vs. unsmoothed data here.