Handbook of Tractography presents methods and applications of MR diffusion tractography, providing deep insights into the theory and implementation of existing tractography techniques and offering practical advice on how to apply diffusion tractography to research projects and clinical applications. Starting from the design of MR acquisition protocols optimized for tractography, the book follows a pipeline approach to explain the main methods behind diffusion modelling and tractography, including advanced analysis of tractography data and connectomics. An extensive section of the book is devoted to the description of tractography applications in research and clinical settings to give a complete picture of tractography practice today.
By focusing on technology, models and applications, this handbook will be an indispensable reference for researchers and students with backgrounds in computer science, mathematics, physics, neuroscience and medical science.
- Provides a unique reference covering the whole field of MRI diffusion tractography
- Includes in-depth descriptions of the latest research and current state-of-the-art of methods available in the field of diffusion tractography
- Present a step-by-step pipeline approach, from setting up MRI data acquisition to the analysis of large-scale tractography datasets
PART I: From Anatomy to Tractography 1. The Brain
2. White Matter Pathways
3. Brain Connectivity and Neuroimaging.
PART II: MR Physics of Diffusion Imaging
4. Principles of Magnetic Resonance Imaging
5. Principles of Diffusion Imaging
6. Diffusion Imaging Pulse Sequences
7. Artefacts and Data preprocessing
PART III: Diffusion Models for Tractography
8. From Diffusion Weighted Imaging to Diffusion Tensor Imaging
9. Diffusion Tensor Imaging
10. High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) models
11. Beyond HARDI Models
12. Extractions of fiber orientations and ODF
PART IV: Tractography Algorithms
13. Streamline Tractography
14. Probabilistic Tractography
15. Global Tractography
16. Hybrid Strategies & Multimodal Imaging
17. Novel Tractography Approaches
PART V: From Streamlines to Tracts
18. Dissecting White Matter Pathways
19. Tract Specific Metrics and Along Tracts Metrics
20. Analysis of Tractography Data
21. Connectivity and Connectomics Analysis
22. Current Limitations and Challenges of Tractography
PART VI: Tractography Applications
23. Tractography as a Research Tool
24. Tractography as a Clinical Tool
25. Validation of Diffusion Tractography
26. Preclinical animal models and ex-vivo Tractography
PART VII: Tools / Appendix
27. Vectors and Tensors
28. Numerical Integration
29. Interpolation and Splines
32. Fourier Transform and Spherical Harmonics
33. Tractography Data Formats
34. Tractography Visualisation
Flavio Dell'Acqua is Associate Professor and Reader in Translational Neuroimaging at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, UK. A biomedical engineer and neuroscientist, Dr. Dell'Acqua's research interests span MR physics and medical image analysis. His work focuses on developing and applying advanced diffusion imaging and tractography methods for neuroscience, psychiatric, and clinical research. Dr. Dell'Acqua has co-authored over 100 papers, and his methods have been successfully applied in numerous tractography studies published in high-impact journals including Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Communication, Brain, and PNAS. He is a co-founder of the NatBrainLab, a multidisciplinary laboratory dedicated to the study of human neuroanatomy and tractography research. Committed to education in the field, Dr. Dell'Acqua has led educational courses on Diffusion Imaging for the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM) for multiple years. He is an active member of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) where he has lectured in educational courses, workshops and has served on the Diffusion Study Group committee. In 2023, he was a co-founder of the International Society for Tractography (IST).
The investigator Maxime Descôteaux is a member of the Medical Imaging Axis of the Centre de recherche du CHUS, professor of the Computer Science Department, Faculty of Science, Université de Sherbrooke, Director of the Imaging and Visualization Platform (PAVI, pavi.dinf.usherbrooke.ca) and Director of the Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Laboratory (SCIL, scil.dinf.usherbrooke.ca). He is a leader in diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) acquisition, processing and visualization to infer white matter connectivity of the brain. The goal of his research is to develop state-of-the-art fiber tractography tools to better understand functional coupling between cortical and sub-cortical regions of the brain and study connectivity properties of white matter to characterize fiber integrity. This field is now named connectomics. His most important contributions are in the fields of fundamental diffusion MRI processing and white matter fiber tract reconstruction and visualization. Recently, his tools have made the transfer to clinical applications for neurosurgical planning and interventions. He is a member of the editorial board of several important journals in neuroscience and co-founder of the company Imeka Solution Inc (www.imeka.ca). Alexander Leemans is a physicist who received his Ph.D. in 2006 at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. From 2007 to 2009, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center (CUBRIC), Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom. In 2009, he joined the Image Sciences Institute (ISI), University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, where he currently holds a tenured faculty position as Associate Professor. His current research interests include modeling, processing, visualizing and analyzing diffusion MRI data for investigating microstructural and architectural tissue organization. He heads the PROVIDI Lab and is the developer of ExploreDTI, which is a graphical toolbox for investigating diffusion MRI data
