TY - JOUR
T1 - Layer-specific diffusion weighted imaging in human primary visual cortex invitro
AU - Kleinnijenhuis, Michiel
AU - Zerbi, Valerio
AU - Küsters, Benno
AU - Slump, Cornelis H.
AU - Barth, Markus
AU - van Cappellen van Walsum, Anne Marie
N1 - Funding Information:
The research was funded by Ministerie van Economische Zaken , Provincie Overijssel and Provincie Gelderland through the ViP-BrainNetworks project; and the Bruker BioSpec 11.7 T NWO middelgroot nr. 40-00506-90-0602 and NWO BIG (VISTA) investment grants to A. Heerschap. The authors express their gratitude to Andor Veltien, David Norris and Dirk Ruiter for their advisory support in this project.
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - One of the most prominent characteristics of the human neocortex is its laminated structure. The first person to observe this was Francesco Gennari in the second half the 18th century: in the middle of the depth of primary visual cortex, myelinated fibres are so abundant that he could observe them with bare eyes as a white line. Because of its saliency, the stria of Gennari has a rich history in cyto- and myeloarchitectural research as well as in magnetic resonance (MR) microscopy. In the present paper we show for the first time the layered structure of the human neocortex with exvivo diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). To achieve the necessary spatial and angular resolution, primary visual cortex samples were scanned on an 11.7T small-animal MR system to characterize the diffusion properties of the cortical laminae and the stria of Gennari in particular. The results demonstrated that fractional anisotropy varied over cortical depth, showing reduced anisotropy in the stria of Gennari, the inner band of Baillarger and the deepest layer of the cortex. Orientation density functions showed multiple components in the stria of Gennari and deeper layers of the cortex. Potential applications of layer-specific diffusion imaging include characterization of clinical abnormalities, cortical mapping and (intra)cortical tractography. We conclude that future high-resolution invivo cortical DWI investigations should take into account the layer-specificity of the diffusion properties.
AB - One of the most prominent characteristics of the human neocortex is its laminated structure. The first person to observe this was Francesco Gennari in the second half the 18th century: in the middle of the depth of primary visual cortex, myelinated fibres are so abundant that he could observe them with bare eyes as a white line. Because of its saliency, the stria of Gennari has a rich history in cyto- and myeloarchitectural research as well as in magnetic resonance (MR) microscopy. In the present paper we show for the first time the layered structure of the human neocortex with exvivo diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). To achieve the necessary spatial and angular resolution, primary visual cortex samples were scanned on an 11.7T small-animal MR system to characterize the diffusion properties of the cortical laminae and the stria of Gennari in particular. The results demonstrated that fractional anisotropy varied over cortical depth, showing reduced anisotropy in the stria of Gennari, the inner band of Baillarger and the deepest layer of the cortex. Orientation density functions showed multiple components in the stria of Gennari and deeper layers of the cortex. Potential applications of layer-specific diffusion imaging include characterization of clinical abnormalities, cortical mapping and (intra)cortical tractography. We conclude that future high-resolution invivo cortical DWI investigations should take into account the layer-specificity of the diffusion properties.
KW - Cortical anisotropy
KW - Diffusion weighted imaging
KW - Layer-specific
KW - Primary visual cortex
KW - Stria of Gennari
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84884815590&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.11.015
DO - 10.1016/j.cortex.2012.11.015
M3 - Article
C2 - 23347559
AN - SCOPUS:84884815590
SN - 0010-9452
VL - 49
SP - 2569
EP - 2582
JO - Cortex
JF - Cortex
IS - 9
ER -