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Um, Park, and Park: Anatomical Brain Connectivity Map of Korean Children
Original Article
Journal of the Korean Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

Journal of the Korean Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine 2011; 15(2): 110-122.

Published online: 31 August 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13104/jksmrm.2011.15.2.110

Anatomical Brain Connectivity Map of Korean Children

Min Hee Um1, Bumhee Park1, Hae-Jeong Park1, 2

1BK21 Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

2Severance Biomedical Science Institute, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Corresponding author: Hae-Jeong Park, Ph.D., Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Division of Nuclear Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 50 Yonsei-ro, Sinchon-dong, Seodaemoon-gu, Seoul 120-749, Korea. Tel. 82-2-2228-2363, Fax. 82-2-312-0578, parkhj@yuhs.ac

Received 27 April 2011       Revised 15 June 2011       Accepted 13 July 2011

Copyright © 2011 Korean Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to establish the method generating human brain anatomical connectivity from Korean children and evaluating the network topological properties using small-world network analysis.

Materials and Methods

Using diffusion tensor images (DTI) and parcellation maps of structural MRIs acquired from twelve healthy Korean children, we generated a brain structural connectivity matrix for individual. We applied one sample t-test to the connectivity maps to derive a representative anatomical connectivity for the group. By spatially normalizing the white matter bundles of participants into a template standard space, we obtained the anatomical brain network model. Network properties including clustering coefficient, characteristic path length, and global/local efficiency were also calculated.

Results

We found that the structural connectivity of Korean children group preserves the small-world properties. The anatomical connectivity map obtained in this study showed that children group had higher intra-hemispheric connectivity than inter-hemispheric connectivity. We also observed that the neural connectivity of the group is high between brain stem and motorsensory areas.

Conclusion

We suggested a method to examine the anatomical brain network of Korean children group. The proposed method can be used to evaluate the efficiency of anatomical brain networks in people with disease.

Keywords: Structural connectivity, Small-world network, Korean children connectome

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1
(a) Parcellation images provided by FreeSurfer.
(b) A flowchart for the construction of the anatomical network in the human brain using DTI tractography. (1) Reconstructing white matter bundles in the whole brain using DTI tractography. (2) Co-registering T1-weighted image with B0-image and generating a transformation matrix. (3) Registering a label image provided by FreeSurfer to B0-image space by applying the transformation matrix and reslicing the image. (4) Determining the white matter bundles connecting every pair of cortical and sub-cortical regions and identifying correlation matrix for each patient. (rRCgC : right rostral anterior cingulate gyrus, rMFGr : right rostral middle frontal gyrus, rSFG : right superior frontal gyrus, rSPG : right superior parietal gyrus)
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Fig. 2
A process for assigning colors into white matter bundles connecting two regions. (1) Identifying colors for white matter bundles connecting each pair of all regions by averaging the RGB values of two regions. (2) Visualizing color-coded white matter bundles in the whole brain.
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Fig. 3
A flow sheet for obtaining an anatomical connectivity map for a group. (1) Normalizing B0-image to T2-weighted image in MNI space and gaining the transformation matrix. (2) Reconstructing all the white matter bundles from the B0-image for each participants. (3) Normalizing the bundles to the MNI space by applying the transformation matrix. (4) Sampling bundles for all participants to obtain population-based white matter bundles.
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Fig. 4
An anatomical connectivity for Korean children group in single color (a) and multi-colors which were obtained in the method averaging the RGB values of pair of all regoins (b). The connectivity shows high degree between two regions including left-superior frontal gyrus and right-superior frontal gyrus, left-post central gyrus and left-supramarginal gyrus, brain stem and left cerebellum cortex, brain stem and right cerebellum cortex. (R : right, A : anterior, P : posterior)
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Fig. 5
Connectivity after conducting one sample t-test (a-c) (p<0.001, uncorrected) and measuring the top 10 percent of the average of the anatomical correlation matirx (d-f) in transverse top view (a, d), coronal anterior view (b, e), and sagittal left view (c, f). For one sample t test, the value of global efficiency is 0.134, local efficiency is 0.148, characteristic path length is 8.262, clustering coefficient is 5.078. For the top 10 percent, global efficiency is 0.264, local efficiency is 0.483, characteristic path length is 3.634, clustering coefficient is 1.107. The size of node and the width of the line indicate node degree and connectivity. Abbreviation: A : anterior, P : posterior, L : left, R : right, lCBllCx : left cerebellum, lTH : left thalamus, lPU : left putamen, BrSt : brain stem, lbankssts : left bankssts, lMFGc : left caudal middle frontal gyrus, lFuG : left fusiform gyrus, lIPG : left inferior parietal gyrus, lITL : left inferior temporal gurys, lICgG : left isthmus cingulate gyrus, lMTG : left middle temporal gyrus, lPCL : left paracentral gyrus, lPCG : left postcentral gyrus, lPCu : left precuneus, lSFG : left superior frontal gyrus, lSPG : left superior parietal gyrus, rFuG : right fusiform gyrus, rIPG : right inferior parietal gyrus, rITG :right inferior temporal gyrus, rICgG : right isthmus cingulate gyrus, rPCG : right postcentral gyrus, rPrG : right precentral gyrus, rPCu : right precuneus, rSPG : right superior parietal gyrus.
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Table 1
Pairs of Regions Showing High Anatomical Connectivity and Correlation Degree(%) and Coefficient of Variation(%)
jksmrm-15-110-i001

Correlation degree was mean value of the ratio of the number of white matter bundles between two regions to the total number of bundles for each participant

Table 2
Fibers Connecting Two Regions with Low Inter-Individual Variation
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Table 3
Fibers Connecting Two Regions with High Inter-Individual Variation
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