title: AnIn vivoMulti-Modal Structural Template for Neonatal Piglets Using High Angular Resolution and Population-Based Whole-Brain Tractography.
abstract: An increasing number of applications use the postnatal piglet model in neuroimaging studies, however, these are based primarily on T1 weighted image templates. There is a growing need for a multimodal structural brain template for a comprehensive depiction of the piglet brain, particularly given the growing applications of diffusion weighted imaging for characterizing tissue microstructures and white matter organization. In this study, we present the first multimodal piglet structural brain template which includes a T1 weighted image with tissue segmentation probability maps, diffusion weighted metric templates with multiple diffusivity maps, and population-based whole-brain fiber tracts for postnatal piglets. These maps provide information about the integrity of white matter that is not available in T1 images alone. The availability of this diffusion weighted metric template will contribute to the structural imaging analysis of the postnatal piglet brain, especially models that are designed for the study of white matter diseases. Furthermore, the population-based whole-brain fiber tracts permit researchers to visualize the white matter connections in the piglet brain across subjects, guiding the delineation of a specific white matter region for structural analysis where current diffusion data is lacking. Researchers are able to augment the tracts by merging tracts from their own data to the population-based fiber tracts and thus improve the confidence of the population-wise fiber distribution.
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour - Systems Neuroscience, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Jidan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour - Systems Neuroscience, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, TorontoON, Canada; Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, TorontoON, Canada.
authors.forename: David Q
authors.initials: DQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour - Systems Neuroscience, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, TorontoON, Canada; Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, TorontoON, Canada.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.affiliation: Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Waspe
authors.affiliation: Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Looi
authors.affiliation: Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Karolina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Piorkowska
authors.affiliation: Centre for Image Guided Innovation and Therapeutic Intervention, The Hospital for Sick Children, TorontoON, Canada; Division of Neurosurgery, The Hospital for Sick Children, TorontoON, Canada.
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Drake
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain, Imaging and Behaviour - Systems Neuroscience, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, TorontoON, Canada; Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, TorontoON, Canada; Division of Neurosurgery, Toronto Western Hospital - University of Toronto, TorontoON, Canada.
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hodaie
keywords: diffusion imaging; multi-modal; neonatal piglet; population-based whole-brain fiber tracts; template