Open AccessAlong-Tract Statistical Mapping of Microstructural Abnormalities in Bipolar Disorder: A Pilot Study
Author(s) -
Leila Nabulsi,
Bramsh Q. Chandio,
Nikhil Dhinagar,
Emily Laltoo,
Genevieve McPhilemy,
Fiona M. Martyn,
Brian Hallahan,
Colm McDonald,
Paul M. Thompson,
Dara M. Can
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
2023 45th annual international conference of the ieee engineering in medicine and biology society (embc)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Conference proceedings
eISSN - 2694-0604
ISBN - 979-8-3503-2447-1
DOI - 10.1109/embc40787.2023.10339964
Subject(s) - bioengineering , engineering profession , general topics for engineers
Investigating brain circuitry involved in bipolar disorder (BD) is key to discovering brain biomarkers for genetic and interventional studies of the disorder. Even so, prior research has not provided a fine-scale spatial mapping of brain microstructural differences in BD. In this pilot diffusion MRI dataset, we used BUndle ANalytics (BUAN)—a recently developed analytic approach for tractography—to extract, map, and visualize the profile of microstructural abnormalities on a 3D model of fiber tracts in people with BD (N=38) and healthy controls (N=49), and investigate along-tract white matter (WM) microstructural differences between these groups. Using the BUAN pipeline, BD was associated with lower mean fractional anisotropy (FA) in fronto-limbic and interhemispheric pathways and higher mean FA in posterior bundles relative to controls.Clinical Relevance— BUAN combines tractography and anatomical information to capture distinct along-tract effects on WM microstructure that may aid in classifying diseases based on anatomical differences.