title: A flocking based method for brain tractography.
abstract: We propose a new method to estimate axonal fiber pathways from Multiple Intra-Voxel Diffusion Orientations. Our method uses the multiple local orientation information for leading stochastic walks of particles. These stochastic particles are modeled with mass and thus they are subject to gravitational and inertial forces. As result, we obtain smooth, filtered and compact trajectory bundles. This gravitational interaction can be seen as a flocking behavior among particles that promotes better and robust axon fiber estimations because they use collective information to move. However, the stochastic walks may generate paths with low support (outliers), generally associated to incorrect brain connections. In order to eliminate the outlier pathways, we propose a filtering procedure based on principal component analysis and spectral clustering. The performance of the proposal is evaluated on Multiple Intra-Voxel Diffusion Orientations from two realistic numeric diffusion phantoms and a physical diffusion phantom. Additionally, we qualitatively demonstrate the performance on in vivo human brain data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Centro de Investigacion en Matematicas (CIMAT), A.C., Guanajuato, Gto 36240, Mexico. Electronic address: arac@cimat.mx.
authors.forename: Ramon
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Aranda
authors.affiliation: Department of Computer Science, Centro de Investigacion en Matematicas (CIMAT), A.C., Guanajuato, Gto 36240, Mexico.
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rivera
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Gto 36000, Mexico.
authors.forename: Alonso
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramirez-Manzanares
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D063132:Connectome / Q000379:methods*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Anatomical brain connectivity; Diffusion tensor; Flocking; Stochastic walks; Tractography