Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on December 9, 2008
Cerebral Cortex 2009 19(8):1889-1895; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn215
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Mapping of Functional Areas in the Human Cortex Based on Connectivity through Association Fibers
1 Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA, 2 Kennedy Krieger Institute, F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA, 3 Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Address correspondence to Susumu Mori, PhD, Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 217 Traylor Building, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Email: susumu{at}mri.jhu.edu.
In the human brain, different regions of the cortex communicate via white matter tracts. Investigation of this connectivity is essential for understanding brain function. It has been shown that trajectories of white matter fiber bundles can be estimated based on orientational information that is obtained from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). By extrapolating this information, cortical regions associated with a specific white matter tract can be estimated. In this study, we created population-averaged cortical maps of brain connectivity for 4 major association fiber tracts, the corticospinal tract (CST), and commissural fibers. It is shown that these 4 association fibers interconnect all 4 lobes of the hemispheres. Cortical regions that were assigned based on association with the CST and the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) agreed with locations of their known (CST: motor) or putative (SLF: language) functions. The proposed approach can potentially be used for quantitative assessment of the effect of white matter abnormalities on associated cortical regions.
Key Words: Brodmann area • cortical connectivity • diffusion tensor imaging • fiber tracts • tractography • white matter atlas