Diffusion tensor imaging segments the human amygdala in vivo

The amygdala plays an important role in emotion, learning, and memory. It would be highly advantageous to understand more precisely its internal structure and connectivity for individual human subjects in vivo. Earlier cytoarchitectural research in post-mortem human and animal brains has revealed mu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 49; no. 4; pp. 2958 - 2965
Main Authors: Solano-Castiella, Eugenia, Anwander, Alfred, Lohmann, Gabriele, Weiss, Marcel, Docherty, Carol, Geyer, Stefan, Reimer, Enrico, Friederici, Angela D., Turner, Robert
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Elsevier Inc 15.02.2010
Elsevier Limited
Subjects:
Adult
Amygdala - anatomy & histology
Anisotropy
Brain
Diffusion
Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Female
Humans
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods
Laboratory animals
Male
Nerve Net - anatomy & histology
Neural Pathways - metabolism
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Studies
Young Adult
ISSN:1053-8119, 1095-9572, 1095-9572
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The amygdala plays an important role in emotion, learning, and memory. It would be highly advantageous to understand more precisely its internal structure and connectivity for individual human subjects in vivo. Earlier cytoarchitectural research in post-mortem human and animal brains has revealed multiple subdivisions and connectivity patterns, probably related to different functions. With standard magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, however, the amygdala appears as an undifferentiated area of grey matter. Using high-quality diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at 3 Tesla, we show diffusion anisotropy in this grey matter area. Such data allowed us to subdivide the amygdala for the first time in vivo. In 15 living subjects, we applied a spectral clustering algorithm to the principal diffusion direction in each amygdala voxel and found a consistent subdivision of the amygdala into a medial and a lateral region. The topography of these regions is in good agreement with the fibre architecture visible in myelin-stained sections through the amygdala of a human post-mortem brain. From these in vivo results we derived a probabilistic map of amygdalar fibre orientations. This segmentation technique has important implications for functional studies in the processing of emotions, cognitive function, and psychiatric disorders and in studying morphometry and volumetry of amygdala subdivisions.
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ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.11.027