Test-Retest Reproducibility of Single- and Cross-Population White Matter Atlases in Diffusion MRI Tractography

Abstract

Diffusion MRI tractography enables noninvasive mapping of white matter fiber tracts. Atlas-based white matter parcellation supports automated tract identification by assigning individual streamlines to atlas-defined clusters and anatomical tract labels. Because clustering-based white matter atlases are constructed from cohort-specific tractography data, they capture common white matter organization represented in the atlas-construction population. Although major white matter anatomy is shared across populations, subtle population-related anatomical variability may influence atlas representation and test-retest correspondence. Therefore, the reproducibility and cross-population generalizability of tractography-based white matter atlases are important considerations for quantitative neuroimaging studies. In this study, we evaluated whether incorporating cross-population anatomical variability during atlas construction improves test-retest reproducibility. To do so, we compared a single-population ORG atlas constructed from a Western cohort with the cross-population East-West White Matter Atlas constructed from both Eastern and Western cohorts. Test-retest diffusion MRI scans from the Human Connectome Project Young Adult (HCP-YA) dataset and the Connectivity-based Brain Imaging Research Database (C-BIRD) were analyzed as independent Western and Eastern test-retest cohorts, respectively. Whole-brain tractography was reconstructed for each dMRI scan and parcellated using both atlases. Reproducibility was assessed using tract detection rate at both cluster level and anatomical tract level, weighted Dice coefficient, and the relative difference of mean fractional anisotropy (FA). Both atlases showed stable tract detection across test-retest scans in both cohorts. Compared with the ORG atlas, the East-West White Matter Atlas achieved higher overall spatial overlap and lower test-retest variability in mean FA, although atlas performance varied across individual tracts. These findings suggest that integrating cross-population information during atlas construction improves the reproducibility and generalizability of white matter atlas mapping across independent populations and imaging protocols.