NTU-90: A high angular resolution brain atlas constructed by q-space diffeomorphic reconstruction

We present a high angular resolution brain atlas constructed by averaging 90 diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) datasets in the ICBM-152 space. The spatial normalization of the diffusion information was conducted by a novel q-space diffeomorphic reconstruction method, which reconstructed the spin distribution function (SDF) in the ICBM-152 space from the diffusion MR signals. The performance of this method was examined by a simulation study modeling nonlinear transformation. The result showed that the reconstructed SDFs can resolve crossing fibers and that the accumulated quantitative anisotropy can reveal the relative ratio of the fiber populations. In the in vivo study, the SDF of the constructed atlas was shown to resolve crossing fiber orientations. Further, fiber tracking showed that the atlas can be used to present the pathways of fiber bundles, and the termination locations of the fibers can provide anatomical localization of the connected cortical regions. This high angular resolution brain atlas may facilitate future connectome research on the complex structure of the human brain.

► A diffusion MRI brain atlas is constructed from 90 DSI datasets. ► Q-space diffeomorphic reconstruction is used to conduct the normalization. ► Our method can preserve crossing fiber orientations after spatial normalization. ► The NTU-90 atlas can provide quantitative anisotropy mapping. ► The NTU-90 atlas can resolve individual fiber bundles in crossing regions.