title: Fusion in diffusion MRI for improved fibre orientation estimation: An application to the 3T and 7T data of the Human Connectome Project.
abstract: Determining the acquisition parameters in diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is governed by a series of trade-offs. Images of lower resolution have less spatial specificity but higher signal to noise ratio (SNR). At the same time higher angular contrast, important for resolving complex fibre patterns, also yields lower SNR. Considering these trade-offs, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) acquires high quality dMRI data for the same subjects at different field strengths (3T and 7T), which are publically released. Due to differences in the signal behavior and in the underlying scanner hardware, the HCP 3T and 7T data have complementary features in k- and q-space. The 3T dMRI has higher angular contrast and resolution, while the 7T dMRI has higher spatial resolution. Given the availability of these datasets, we explore the idea of fusing them together with the aim of combining their benefits. We extend a previously proposed data-fusion framework and apply it to integrate both datasets from the same subject into a single joint analysis. We use a generative model for performing parametric spherical deconvolution and estimate fibre orientations by simultaneously using data acquired under different protocols. We illustrate unique features from each dataset and how they are retained after fusion. We further show that this allows us to complement benefits and improve brain connectivity analysis compared to analyzing each of the datasets individually.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. Electronic address: stam@fmrib.ox.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Stamatios N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Sotiropoulos
authors.affiliation: Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Moisés
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hernández-Fernández
authors.affiliation: Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: An T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Vu
authors.affiliation: Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Jesper L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Andersson
authors.affiliation: Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Steen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moeller
authors.affiliation: Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Essa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yacoub
authors.affiliation: Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lenglet
authors.affiliation: Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
authors.forename: Kamil
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ugurbil
authors.affiliation: Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London, London, UK.
authors.forename: Timothy E J
authors.initials: TEJ
authors.lastname: Behrens
authors.affiliation: Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Saad
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jbabdi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D063132:Connectome / Q000379:methods*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013382:Subtraction Technique; D066127:White Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology*