{"title":"Enhanced structural brain connectivity analyses using high diffusion-weighting strengths.","authors":"Leyao Yu, Adeen Flinker, Jelle Veraart","doi":"10.1007/s00429-025-02916-6","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Tractography is a unique modality for the in vivo measurement of structural connectivity, crucial for understanding brain networks and neurological conditions. With increasing b-value, the diffusion-weighting signal becomes primarily sensitive to the intra-axonal signal. However, it remains unclear how tractography is affected by this observation. Here, using open-source datasets, we showed that at high b-values, DWI reduces the uncertainty in estimating fiber orientations. Specifically, we found the ratio of biologically-meaningful longer-range connections increases, accompanied with downstream impact of redistribution of connectome and network metrics. However, when going beyond b = 6000 s/mm<sup>2</sup>, the loss of SNR imposed a penalty. Lastly, we showed that the data reaches satisfactory reproducibility with b-values above 1200 s/mm<sup>2</sup>. Overall, the results suggest that using b-values above 2500 s/mm<sup>2</sup> is essential for more accurate connectome reconstruction by reducing uncertainty in fiber orientation estimation, supporting the use of higher b-value protocols in standard diffusion MRI scans and pipelines.</p>","PeriodicalId":9145,"journal":{"name":"Brain Structure & Function","volume":"230 5","pages":"65"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Brain Structure & Function","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-025-02916-6","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ANATOMY & MORPHOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Tractography is a unique modality for the in vivo measurement of structural connectivity, crucial for understanding brain networks and neurological conditions. With increasing b-value, the diffusion-weighting signal becomes primarily sensitive to the intra-axonal signal. However, it remains unclear how tractography is affected by this observation. Here, using open-source datasets, we showed that at high b-values, DWI reduces the uncertainty in estimating fiber orientations. Specifically, we found the ratio of biologically-meaningful longer-range connections increases, accompanied with downstream impact of redistribution of connectome and network metrics. However, when going beyond b = 6000 s/mm2, the loss of SNR imposed a penalty. Lastly, we showed that the data reaches satisfactory reproducibility with b-values above 1200 s/mm2. Overall, the results suggest that using b-values above 2500 s/mm2 is essential for more accurate connectome reconstruction by reducing uncertainty in fiber orientation estimation, supporting the use of higher b-value protocols in standard diffusion MRI scans and pipelines.
期刊介绍:
Brain Structure & Function publishes research that provides insight into brain structure−function relationships. Studies published here integrate data spanning from molecular, cellular, developmental, and systems architecture to the neuroanatomy of behavior and cognitive functions. Manuscripts with focus on the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system are not accepted for publication. Manuscripts with focus on diseases, animal models of diseases, or disease-related mechanisms are only considered for publication, if the findings provide novel insight into the organization and mechanisms of normal brain structure and function.