Local structural connectivity is associated with social cognition in autism spectrum disorder.

The current theory implying local, short-range overconnectivity in autism spectrum disorder, contrasting with long-range underconnectivity, is based on heterogeneous results, on limited data involving functional connectivity studies, on heterogeneous paediatric populations and non-specific methodologies. In this work, we studied short-distance structural connectivity in a homogeneous population of males with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and used a novel methodology specifically suited for assessing U-shaped short-distance tracts, including a recently developed tractography-based atlas of the superficial white matter fibres. We acquired diffusion-weighted MRI for 58 males (27 subjects with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder and 31 control subjects) and extracted the mean generalized fractional anisotropy of 63 short-distance tracts.

Clustering of Whole-Brain White Matter Short Association Bundles Using HARDI Data.

Human brain connectivity is extremely complex and variable across subjects. While long association and projection bundles are stable and have been deeply studied, short association bundles present higher intersubject variability, and few studies have been carried out to adequately describe the structure, shape, and reproducibility of these bundles. However, their analysis is crucial to understand brain function and better characterize the human connectome.

Short association bundle atlas based on inter-subject clustering from HARDI data.

This paper is focused on the study of short brain association fibers. We present an automatic method to identify short bundles of the superficial white matter based on inter-subject hierarchical clustering. Our method finds clusters of similar fibers, belonging to the different subjects, according to a distance measure between fibers.

Creation of a whole brain short association bundle atlas using a hybrid approach.

The Human brain connection map is far from being complete. In particular the study of the superficial white matter (SWM) is an unachieved task. Its description is essential for the understanding of human brain function and the study of pathogenesis triggered by abnormal connectivity.

Shape analysis of the cingulum, uncinate and arcuate fasciculi in patients with bipolar disorder.

Background: Abnormal maturation of brain connectivity is supposed to underlie the dysfunctional emotion regulation in patients with bipolar disorder (BD). To test this hypothesis, white matter integrity is usually investigated using measures of water diffusivity provided by MRI. Here we consider a more intuitive aspect of the morphometry of the white matter tracts: the shape of the fibre bundles, which is associated with neurodevelopment.