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White matter organization in relation to upper limb motor control in healthy subjects: exploring the added value of diffusion kurtosis imaging
Gooijers, J. Leemans, A. Van Cauter, S. Sunaert, S. Swinnen, S. P. Caeyenberghs, K.
Gooijers, J.
Leemans, A.
Van Cauter, S.
Sunaert, S.
Swinnen, S. P.
Caeyenberghs, K.
Abstract
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) characterizes white matter (WM) microstructure. In many brain regions, however, the assumption that the diffusion probability distribution is Gaussian may be invalid, even at low b values. Recently, diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) was suggested to more accurately estimate this distribution. We explored the added value of DKI in studying the relation between WM microstructure and upper limb coordination in healthy controls (N = 24). Performance on a complex bimanual tracking task was studied with respect to the conventional DTI measures (DKI or DTI derived) and kurtosis metrics of WM tracts/regions carrying efferent (motor) output from the brain, corpus callosum (CC) substructures and whole brain WM. For both estimation models, motor performance was associated with fractional anisotropy (FA) of the CC-genu, CC-body, the anterior limb of the internal capsule, and whole brain WM (rs range 0.42–0.63). Although DKI revealed higher mean, radial and axial diffusivity and lower FA than DTI (p < 0.001), the correlation coefficients were comparable. Finally, better motor performance was associated with increased mean and radial kurtosis and kurtosis anisotropy (rs range 0.43–0.55). In conclusion, DKI provided additional information, but did not show increased sensitivity to detect relations between WM microstructure and bimanual performance in healthy controls.
Keywords
Bimanual motor control Diffusion tensor imaging Excess kurtosis Non-Gaussian diffusion
Date
2014
Type
Journal article
Journal
Brain Structure and Function
Book
Volume
219
Issue
5
Page Range
1627-1638
Article Number
ACU Department
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
License
File Access
Controlled