Project: Brain Tract Estimation via Cortical Folding Simulations
Description
Description: Tractography is a method that maps nerve tracts using orientation data from diffusion MRI scans. Despite advancements over recent decades, state-of-the-art algorithms still face significant inaccuracies, generating four times as many invalid bundles as valid ones, showing little predictive value on anatomical metrics, and with post-processing methods showing no statistical improvement in results. These issues, along with the inherent ambiguities in orientation data, have motivated research into anatomical priors that could improve tract reconstruction. One possible source of such anatomical information is the cortical folding structure. Cortical folds in humans develop around the same time as major white matter tracts, and recent literature shows a clear link between folding structure and the connectivity of the underlying white matter.
In this project, the connection between tension-induced fiber growth, cortical folding patterns, and brain tracts will be explored through numerical simulations. The goal is to improve tractography results by incorporating information from cortical folds and the estimated tension-induced fiber growth.
Details
- Student
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BOBesm Osman
- Supervisor
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Maxime Chamberland
- Secondary supervisor
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Ruben Vink