Joint analysis of cortical folding pattern, thickness and fiber density using structural and DTI data

Abstract

Cortical folding is an essential geometric characteristic of the human cerebral cortex. The cortical folding pattern conveys important information about brain architecture and function. Cortical thickness is another important morphological feature that reflects the size, density, and arrangement of cells in the cortex. Meanwhile, cortical regions are connected by short-distance or long-distance white matter fibers and neuroscience research reports that axongenesis and corticogensis are closely associated. This paper focuses on applying in-house developed tools to quantify the cortical folding patterns, thickness and fiber density using structural and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data and analyzing their associations in normal brains. Our experimental results show that cortical folding patterns are highly correlated with cortical thickness and fiber density distributions on the cortex. This result can potentially provide new clues regarding the architecture, function and development of the human brain.