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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.06.01.543240

A population-averaged structural connectomic brain atlas of 422 HCP-Aging subjects

Abstract

Population-averaged brain atlases, that are represented in a standard space with anatomical labels, are instrumental tools in neurosurgical planning and the study of neurodegenerative conditions. Traditional brain atlases are primarily derived from anatomical scans and contain limited information regarding the axonal organization of the white matter. With the advance of diffusion MRI that allows the modelling of fiber orientation distribution (FOD) in the brain tissue, there is an increasing interest for a population-averaged FOD template, especially based on a large healthy aging cohort, to offer structural connectivity information for connectomic surgery and analysis of neurodegeneration. The dataset described in this article contains a set of multi-contrast structural connectomic MRI atlases, including T1w, T2w, and FOD templates, along with the associated whole brain tractograms. The templates were made using multi-contrast group-wise registration based on 3T MRIs of 422 Human Connectome Project in Aging (HCP-A) subjects. To enhance the usability, probabilistic tissue maps and segmentation of 22 subcortical structures are provided. Finally, the subthalamic nucleus shown in the atlas is parcellated into sensorimotor, limbic, and associative sub-regions based on their structural connectivity to facilitate the analysis and planning of deep brain stimulation procedures. The dataset is available on the OSF Repository: https://osf.io/p7syt. Specifications table O_TBL View this table: org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@59fb82org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@18f1f44org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@14de18dorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1318a8org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b7bea8_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_TBL C_TBL Value of the dataO_LIThese publicly available templates were created using 422 HCP-Aging subjects, representing averaged anatomical and structural connectivity features of the healthy aging brain. C_LIO_LIMatching T1w, T2w, and fiber orientation distribution (FOD) templates are provided, together with the associated tractograms that contain 20K and 2 million streamlines. C_LIO_LISegmentation of 22 subcortical structures and probabilistic tissue maps are provided to enhance the usability of the templates. C_LIO_LIParcellation of the subthalamic nucleus, based on structural connectivity of the included cohort at 0.3 x 0.3 x 0.3 mm3 resolution, is provided. C_LI

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Xiao, Y., Lau, J. C., Peters, T. M., Khan, A. R.. 2023-06-05. A population-averaged structural connectomic brain atlas of 422 HCP-Aging subjects. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.01.543240

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