Abstract
Despite extensive neuroimaging research of primary sensory cortices involved in auditory and visual functions, subcortical structures within these domains, such as the inferior and superior colliculi, the medial and lateral geniculate nuclei and the superior olivary complex, are currently understudied with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in living humans. This is because a precise localization of these nuclei is hampered by the limited contrast and sensitivity of conventional neuroimaging methods for deep brain nuclei. In this work, we used 7 Tesla multi-modal (T2-weighted and diffusion fractional anisotropy) 1.1 mm isotropic resolution MRI to achieve high sensitivity and contrast for single-subject brainstem and thalamic nuclei delineation. After precise coregistration to stereotactic space, we generated an in vivo human probabilistic atlas of auditory (medial geniculate nucleus, inferior colliculus, and superior olivary complex) and visual (lateral geniculate nucleus and superior colliculus) subcortical nuclei. We foresee the use of this atlas as a tool to precisely identify the location and shape of auditory/visual deep nuclei in research as well as clinical human studies.
Highlights
Brainstem nuclei such as the inferior colliculus (IC), superior colliculus (SC) and the superior olivary complex (SOC), as well as thalamic nuclei such as the medial geniculate nucleus (MG) and lateral geniculate nucleus (LG) modulate auditory/auditory-motor (IC, SOC and MG) and visual/oculo-motor (SC and LG) functions
The SC plays a key role for generation of saccadic eye movements, as it projects to the paramedian pontine reticular formation through the descending predorsal bundle; its ascending branch projects toward the interstitial nucleus of Cajal, a vertical saccade generator in the midbrain, and to the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus and the intralaminar thalamic nuclei
The left and right IC nuclei appeared as hypointensities compared to neighboring regions on T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Summary
Brainstem nuclei such as the inferior colliculus (IC), superior colliculus (SC) and the superior olivary complex (SOC), as well as thalamic nuclei such as the medial geniculate nucleus (MG) and lateral geniculate nucleus (LG) modulate auditory/auditory-motor (IC, SOC and MG) and visual/oculo-motor (SC and LG) functions. These nuclei are involved in the pathogenesis of. The SOC is located in the ventrolateral border of the caudal pontine tegmentum The function of this nucleus is to process the binaural input converging from the cochlear nuclei from the two ears. The LG receives input form the SC and projects toward the visual cortex
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