title: The white matter query language: a novel approach for describing human white matter anatomy.
abstract: We have developed a novel method to describe human white matter anatomy using an approach that is both intuitive and simple to use, and which automatically extracts white matter tracts from diffusion MRI volumes. Further, our method simplifies the quantification and statistical analysis of white matter tracts on large diffusion MRI databases. This work reflects the careful syntactical definition of major white matter fiber tracts in the human brain based on a neuroanatomist's expert knowledge. The framework is based on a novel query language with a near-to-English textual syntax. This query language makes it possible to construct a dictionary of anatomical definitions that describe white matter tracts. The definitions include adjacent gray and white matter regions, and rules for spatial relations. This novel method makes it possible to automatically label white matter anatomy across subjects. After describing this method, we provide an example of its implementation where we encode anatomical knowledge in human white matter for ten association and 15 projection tracts per hemisphere, along with seven commissural tracts. Importantly, this novel method is comparable in accuracy to manual labeling. Finally, we present results applying this method to create a white matter atlas from 77 healthy subjects, and we use this atlas in a small proof-of-concept study to detect changes in association tracts that characterize schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA. demian.wassermann@inria.fr.|Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA. demian.wassermann@inria.fr.|Surgical Planning Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA. demian.wassermann@inria.fr.|Athena Project Team, INRIA Sophia Antipolis-Méditerranée, 2004 route des Lucioles, 06902, Sophia Antipolis CEDEX, France. demian.wassermann@inria.fr.
authors.forename: Demian
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5194-6056
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wassermann
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.|Center for Morphometric Analysis, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
authors.forename: Nikos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Makris
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.|Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Yogesh
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rathi
authors.affiliation: Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.|Department of Psychiatry, VA Boston Healthcare System, Harvard Medical School, Brockton, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shenton
authors.affiliation: Surgical Planning Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kikinis
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.|Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.|Center for Morphometric Analysis, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 149 13th Street, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kubicki
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Mathematics in Imaging, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 1249 Boylston, 02215, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Carl-Fredrik
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Westin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001271:Atlases as Topic; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology; D016208:Databases, Factual; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009323:Natural Language Processing; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000473:pathology; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D066127:White Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000473:pathology
keywords: Automatic classification of white matter tracts; Computational neuroanatomy; Diffusion MRI; Tractography; White matter fascicles