How Does White Matter Registration Affect Tractography Alignment?

Abstract

Tractography is a powerful method to represent the structural connectivity of the brain white matter. Nevertheless, the comparison of these data structures between two individuals is still an open challenge because of their complexity, e.g. digital representation of millions of fibers as polylines. The scientific community spent a meaningful effort to develop new methods of white matter registration aiming to take advantage of diffusion MRI models. Despite the effort to improve the registration of the white matter, little is known about the effect of the registration on tractogram alignment. The main issue for an empirical evaluation is the lack of ground truth, e.g. a sample of data where the correct alignment is validated by experts. This work aims to overcome this drawback by proposing an evaluation framework based on the matching of homologous fiber structures, e.g. known neuroanatomical bundles. The contribution is a quantitative comparison of how the most representative methods of white matter registration affect tractogram alignment.