title: Quantitative Mapping of Human Brain Vertical-Occipital Fasciculus.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The vertical-occipital fasciculus (VOF), historically named as "the fasciculus occipitalis verticalis of Wernicke," has been recently brought to the attention of the neuroscience community. In this study, we delineated and quantified this tract with deterministic diffusion tensor imaging protocol.
  
  
  METHODS
  Five (all males aged 24-37 years) and 10 (7 males and 3 females aged 20-51 years) right-handed healthy subjects were studied with 1 and 2 mm DT-MRI data sets, respectively. The DTI attributes of this pathway along with its cortical representation (Brodmann areas) were presented in standard Montréal Neurological Institute space. Nearby pathways such as inferior fronto-occipital (IFOF) and inferior longitudinal fasciculi (ILF) were used as reference pathways.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total volume of VOF has been found to be approximately .8-1% of whole brain in both data sets. The fractional anisotropy and axial diffusivity of this tract have been found to be relatively 10-15% lower than adjacent pathways such as IFOF and ILF in both data sets. Although IFOF and ILF showed somewhat leftward asymmetry in diffusivity, no right-left asymmetry has been observed in VOF.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We believe that our work will pave the way for future imaging studies investigating VOF in different conditions such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, and multiple sclerosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and TIRR Memorial Hermann Neurorecovery Research Center, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Zafer
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Keser
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Imaging, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Fehime Eymen
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Ucisik-Keser
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, TX.
authors.forename: Khader M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Hasan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D066127:White Matter / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Vertical-occipital fasciculus; deterministic; quantitative mapping; tractography