Loredana Storelli¹, Elisabetta Pagani¹, Paolo Preziosa^1,2, Massimo Filippi^1,2,3,4,5, and Maria A. Rocca^1,2,5
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, ²Neurology Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, ³Neurorehabilitation Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, ⁴Neurophysiology Service, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, ⁵Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

When investigating white matter (WM), its complex microstructure should be considered. Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) and the constrained spherical deconvolution (CSD) are diffusion weighted imaging models that account for this complexity, compared to the commonly used MRI techniques. In this study, we applied volumetric, diffusion tensor, NODDI and CSD models to 86 patients with multiple sclerosis and 55 healthy controls at baseline and after 1-year of follow-up. The comparison of these techniques both globally and voxel-based showed that the CSD model was able to identify WM atrophy offering greater anatomical specificity and biological interpretability. 

Eva YW Cheung¹, Patrick KC Chiu², YF Shea², Joseph SK Kwan³, and Henry KF Mak^1
1The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ²Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, ³Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

The findings demonstrated the interhemispheric functional connectivity correlates with brain regional volume. 

Shu Su¹, Yingqian Chen¹, Yan Dai¹, Long Qian², Hongyu Zhang¹, and Zhiyun Yang^1
1First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guang Dong, China, ²MR Research, GE Healthcare, Beijing, China

As the most common childhood-onset neurodevelopmental disorder, the pathogenesis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is still unclear. The goal of current study aims at investigating the quantitative profiles of brain grey matter in pediatric treatment-naïve ADHD using Synthetic MRI (SyMRI).

Jun-Cheng Weng^1,2,3, Li-Bang Zheng¹, Ming-Shih Lee^4,5, and Ming-Chou Ho^6,7
1Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, and Bachelor Program in Artificial Intelligence, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ²Medical Imaging Research Center, Institute for Radiological Research, Chang Gung University and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ³Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan, ⁴Department of Medical Laboratory and Biotechnology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ⁵Clinical Laboratory, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, ⁶Department of Psychology, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ⁷Clinical Psychological Room, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

The World Health Organization suggests that cigarette smoking causes more than 7 million deaths every year. However, few studies have focused on the structural alternations of chronic smoking by using generalized q-sampling imaging (GQI). We aimed to use GQI to evaluate the impact of the neurological structure and network caused by chronic smoking. Our results provided further evidence indicating that chronic smoking may lead to brain structure and connectivity changes.

Zhang Feifei¹, Zhiyun Jia², and Qiyong Gong^2
1Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, ²Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), Department of Radiology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China, ChengDu, China

The present study provides initial evidence indicating that a higher risk of EXD is linked with a smaller GMV in the right OFC, left sgCG, and left IPL in a sample of regular exercisers, which sheds light on the neuroanatomical basis of EXD. Furthermore, our study found that the right OFC mediates the relationship between stress and EXD, revealing a potential neuropsychological mechanism for how stress affects EXD. Our findings might facilitate the diagnosis of EXD and the target selection for the corresponding intervention (e.g., behavioral or brain intervention ) to help individuals reduce EXD and improve their quality of life.

Jing Yang¹, Du Lei², Xueling Suo³, Jiaxin Peng⁴, Rong Peng⁴, and Qiyong Gong^3
1Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, sichuan, China, ²Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, United States, ³Huaxi MR Research Center (HMRRC), West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, ⁴Department of Neurology, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

Present neuroradiological studies demonstrated significant alterations in surface-based morphology in patients with essential tremor (ET) relative to healthy controls (HC). The current study was achieved by exploring the abnormal brain morphological features of patients with ET by using three-dimensional T1-weighted imaging, as well as the relationship between demographic/clinical variables and affected structural cortical features. We found that ET patients showed significant structural changes both in the motor and non-motor brain regions and some abnormities were correlated with the clinical scales. Further, abnormalities attributed to ET can also be affected by various demographic and clinical variables.

Blanche Bapst^1,2, Aurélien Massire³, Tobias Kober^4,5,6, Gian Franco Piredda^4,5,6, Bénédicte Maréchal^4,5,6, and Pierre Brugières^1
1Department of Neuroradiology, Henri Mondor Universitary Hospital, AP-HP, Créteil, France, ²Faculty of Medicine, Université Paris Est Créteil, Créteil, France, ³Siemens Healthcare SAS, Saint-Denis, France, ⁴Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare AG, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁶Signal Processing Laboratory (LTS 5), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland

MP2RAGE is 3D T₁-weighted MR sequence used for high GM/WM contrast imaging, enabling morphometry, brain segmentation and T₁ mapping. Despite these advantages, it suffers from long acquisition times, hindering broad clinical adoption. In this work, brain data obtained from 29 patients with various pathologies using the GRAPPAx3-accelerated reference (8:22 min) and a new compressed-sensing version (4:00 min) of the MP2RAGE were compared with respect to brain volumetry and T₁ mapping results. Very high agreement was observed between the two versions. These results pave the way for a broader use of CS-MP2RAGE, eventually enabling its clinical use.

Shimpei Kato^1,2, Kouhei Kamiya³, Koji Kamagata¹, Hiroshi Kusahara⁴, Masahiro Abe⁴, Shohei Fujita^1,2, Toshiaki Akashi¹, Katsuhiro Sano¹, Akihiko Wada¹, Masaaki Hori³, Osamu Abe², and Shigeki Aoki^1
1Department of Radiology, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan, ²Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, ³Department of Radiology, Toho University Omori Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan, ⁴Advanced MRI development PJ Team, Canon Medical Systems corp., Kanagawa, Japan

Cortical and subcortical gray matter (GM) are histologically different and have different DTI values. In this study, we measured the microscopic fractional anisotropy (μFA) of cortical and subcortical GM in healthy subjects using double-diffusion encoding. We confirmed that the μFA and fractional anisotropyof subcortical GM were higher than those of cortical GM. Additionally, the μFA in the globus pallidus was high than in the striatum. Myelin was higher in subcortical GM than in cortical GM, and it was higher in globus pallidus than in the striatum; therefore, higher μFA may reflect these histological features.

Jonathan Stutters¹, Marco Battiston¹, Nevin John¹, Thomas Williams¹, Claudia Wheeler-Kingshott^1,2,3, Frederik Barkhof^1,4,5, Jeremy Chataway¹, and Ferran Prados^1,4,6
1NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, Faculty of Brain Sciences, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom, ²Department of Brain & Behavioural Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, ³Brain Connectivity Center Research Department, IRCCS Mondino Foundation, Pavia, Italy, ⁴Centre for Medical Image Computing (CMIC), Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom, ⁵Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, VU University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ⁶e-Health Centre, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

Optimizations of a 3D T1 sequence to take advantage of recent improvements to the hardware and software of a Philips Achieva MRI scanner allowed an acquisition to be performed in one third of the original time.  We compared a number of cross-sectional volume measures, often used in research studies or as outcome measures of clinical trials, computed from images obtained with this protocol and the more widely used non-accelerated one.  We find that cross-sectional volume measures are highly correlated between the accelerated and non-accelerated protocols, warranting the adoption of the accelerated one in clinical studies and clinical trials.

Lindsay C Hanford^1,2,3, Emily M Iannazzi^1,2, Tom Hilbert^4,5,6, Tobias Kober^4,5,6, Randy L Buckner^1,2,3, and Ross W Mair^1,3
1Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, ²Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States, ³Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁴Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁶LTS5, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Compressed sensing (cs) has the potential to shorten scan acquisition time. This time savings may help to reduce patient burden, MR artifacts due to motion, and cost for repeat acquisitions. A key open question is whether time-saving cs T1w structural images will yield quantitative morphometric estimates comparable to traditional longer sequences. To test this, images were acquired for numerous cs T1w image variations across two independent datasets. Structural estimates were compared within- and between-subjects to assess scan stability and the effect of acceleration. x6 cs acceleration (~86s scan) was sufficient to yield comparable morphometrics for most measures in typical applications. 

Mathilde Carrière¹, Bénédicte Maréchal^2,3,4, Jérémy Deverdun¹, Thomas Troalen⁵, Tobias Kober^2,3,4, Ricardo Corredor-Jerez^2,3,4, and Emmanuelle Le Bars^1
1I2FH, Neuroradiology, CHU Montpellier, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France, ²Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare AG, Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Département de radiologie, Hôpital Universitaire de Lausanne et Université de Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴LTS 5, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵Siemens SAS Healthcare, Saint-Denis, France

Current MR protocol guidelines for multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis and follow-up recommend the acquisition of 3D sequences as high isotropic resolution improves lesion conspicuity; however, this prolongs clinical scan protocols. We present a qualitative and quantitative comparison of lesion assessment using a standard 3D FLAIR and an optimized CAIPIRINHA version in conjunction with compressed sensing MPRAGE in 44 MS patients. We compared the automated lesion segmentation results between protocols, with and without additional manual corrections of the lesion masks. Volumes using the optimized protocol highly correlated with the results from the conventional protocol, while reducing the acquisition time by 47%.   

Loredana Storelli¹, Elisabetta Pagani¹, Patrizia Pantano^2,3, Nikolaos Petsas², Gioacchino Tedeschi⁴, Antonio Gallo⁴, Nicola De Stefano⁵, Marco Battaglini⁵, Paola Zaratin⁶, Maria A. Rocca^1,7,8, and Massimo Filippi^1,7,8,9,10
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, ²Department of Human Neurosciences, "La Sapienza" Rome University, Rome, Italy, ³Department of Radiology, IRCCS Neuromed, Pozzilli, Italy, ⁴Department of Advanced Medical and Surgical Sciences, and 3T MRI Center, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Naples, Italy, ⁵Department of Medicine, Surgery and Neuroscience, University of Siena, Siena, Italy, ⁶Fondazione Italiana Sclerosi Multipla, Genoa, Italy, ⁷Neurology Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, ⁸Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy, ⁹Neurorehabilitation Unit, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy, ¹⁰Neurophysiology Service, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy

Using the multicenter dataset available within the Italian Neuroimaging Network Initiative, we compared the performance of different atrophy tools on brain MRI from 457 multiple sclerosis (MS) patients and 271 healthy controls, since monitoring neurodegeneration is one of the most important goals of therapeutic strategies in MS. We found an acceptable agreement and comparable performances among the software for GM and whole brain atrophy quantification. The free licence, speed and facility of integration in the clinical routine are also important aspects to consider for the selection of the atrophy pipeline. These results should be confirmed on large-scale longitudinal data.

Ge Zhang¹, Zheng Wang², and Meiyun Wang^3
1Radiology, Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China, ²CAS, Shanghai, China, ³Henan Provincial People's Hospital, Zhengzhou, China

To understand the structural consistency across primate brains is very important to perform neuroimaging computation, especially when it comes to study human brains through monkey-based experiments. Here we investigate the brain alignment by comparing structural covariance network calculated with the Regional Map parcellation templates. The unimodal areas and part of frontal areas exhibit consistency in cortical thickness and structural covariance. But M1 regions and lateral part of PFC were not similar in brain morphology. The result provide reference in cross-species brain imaging calculation based on Regional Map.

Nadim Farhat¹, Julia Kofler^2,3, Jacob Berardinelli¹, Mark Stauffer⁴, Tales Santini¹, Neilesh Vinjamuri¹, Andrea Sajewski ¹, Salem Alkhateeb¹, Tiago Martins¹, Noah Schweitzer ¹, Milos Ikonomovic^3,5, Howard J. Aizenstein^1,6, and Tamer S Ibrahim^1,6,7
1Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ²Pathology, UPMC, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ³Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁴Pathology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁵Neurology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁶Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States, ⁷Radiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

In this project, we implemented a novel approach to align ex-vivo MRI brain images and gross neuropathology photographs with minimal image processing. The approach included the design and implementation of a reusable 3D printed enclosure with integrated cutting guides . Our results show a good alignment between ex-vivo high field MRI and gross brain image photographs.

Xuchen Yu^1,2, Jiawei Han ³, Hui Zhang^1,2, Min He⁴, Weibo Chen⁵, Jing Ding⁴, and He Wang^1,2,3
1Institute of science and technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Shanghai, China, ²Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China, ³Human Phenome Institute, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, ⁴Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China, ⁵Philips Healthcare, Shanghai, China

Most of the lacunar infarcts are small and asymptomatic, while the location and accumulation of multiple lacunar infarctions could cause significant physical and cognitive disabilities. In this study, we explore the association between cognitive impairment and brain atrophy in patients with lateral ventricle infarction and whether there were differences in neuro-radiological features.

Sean Deoni¹, Lexie Volpe², Jennifer Beauchemin², and Viren D'Sa^3
1Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, United States, ²Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, United States, ³Pediatrics, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, United States

Early brain development is punctuated by rapid changes in the white and gray matter, including myelination and advancing microstructure, architecture, volume, and geometry.  Here we explored the relationships between, and influence of, these changing neuroanatomical properties and advancing cognitive skill in healthy and typically developing toddlers and young children.  Unlike past results in older children and adults, we find few significant associations between cortical morphometry measures and cognition.  Instead, we find strong associations between intra-cortical myelin content and measures of language and visual reception function.

Longchuan Li¹, Pui-Yee Wong¹, Warren Jones¹, Ami Klin¹, and Sarah Shultz^1
1Department of Pediatrics, Marcus Autism Center, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States

Image registration is a critical step for robust and accurate atlas-based analyses on brain volumetric changes. This is especially a challenge in brain growth studies in infants between birth and 6 months of life, when both T1w and T2w magnetic resonance images experience time-varying contrast changes. In this study, we compared image registration outcomes via T1w and tissue segmented images derived using a deep learning method. Our results demonstrated superior registration accuracy based on segmentation images, probably due to clear boundaries between tissues types, as well as their time-constant contrasts over development.   

Meng-Yao Su¹, Zhi-Peng Zhou¹, Mei Long¹, Wen Su¹, Xiao-Wei Lu¹, and Long Qian^2
1Affiliated Hospital of Guilin Medical University, Guilin, China, ²MR Research, GE Healthcar, Beijing, China

The goal of current study is to validate whether the contrast enhanced T2 FLAIR (CE-T2-FLAIR) could provide additional value for clinical diagnosis beyond the regular sequence. A retrospective analysis of 52 cases of intracranial ring-enhanced lesions validated by menstrual surgery, pathology or clinical follow-up observation from January 2019 to June 2020 was performed in current study. Our results demonstrated that the CE-T2-FLAIR "edge enhancement sign" was more closely related to inflammatory lesions, and indicated a high possibility of that disease.

Leighton Barnden¹, Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik¹, Donald Staines¹, Ben Crouch², and Zack Shan^3
1Griffith University, Southport, QLD, Australia, ²Nuclear Medicine, Royal Adelaide Hospital, Adelaide, SA, Australia, ³University of Sunshine Coast, Sunshine Coast, QLD, Australia

The sensitivity of different structural MRI sequences for the detection of clinical abnormalities in cross-sectional studies was evaluated using actual population studies.  We studied 3 patient cohorts on two MRI scanners (1.5T and 3T), using T1wSE, T2wSE, T1GRE, T2SPACE and MTC sequences for clinical group comparisons. Novel insights into their clinical potential of different structural MRI scans indicated T1wSE and T2wSE offer advanced sensitivity and should be standard in clinical cross-sectional studies. . Although our sensitivity metric was computed for separate voxels, we expect inter-subject variance will have a similar effect on the sensitivity for cluster detection.

Evgeniya Kirilina^1,2, Ilona Lipp¹, Kerrin Pine¹, Luke Edwards¹, Carsten Jäger^1,3, Kirsten Garus⁴, Markus Cremer⁴, Katrin Amunts^4,5, and Nikolaus Weiskopf^1,6
1Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, ²Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, ³Paul Flechsig Institute of Brain Research, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany, ⁴INM-1, Structural and Functional Organisation of the Brain, Forschungszentrum Juelich GmbH, Juelich, Germany, ⁵Cecile und Oskar Vogt Institute for Brain Research, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany, ⁶Felix Bloch Institute for Solid State Physics, Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany

Reference neuroanatomical brain data are required to validate qMRI microstructural metrics and link them to histological measures.  The BigBrain dataset provides unique cytoarchitectonic 3D atlas based on several post-mortem human brains. We aim to complement the BigBrain atlas by ultrahigh-resolution quantitative multi-parameter maps. Here, we present ultra-high resolution quantitative multi-parameter maps (MPM) acquired at 3T and 7T on a post-mortem brain. We demonstrate high data quality and feasibility of cortical layer and subcortical nuclei analysis. The brain will be processed following the BigBrain cytoarchitectonic atlasing procedure and  will reveal specific qMRI fingerprints of cortical areas with distinct cytoarchitecture.