Dr. Seung Yong Hwang
Saturday April 29, 2023
4:45 pm - 5:10 pm
Diffusion-Weighted MRI: Exploring White Matter Fiber Tracts in the Brain
Abstract
Unlocking the mysteries of the brain has always been a fascinating topic in neuroscience. Have you ever wondered how our brains control language, movement, and memory? The answer lies within the intricate network of white matter fiber tracts in our brains, and thanks to cutting-edge technology like Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (D-MRI), we are now able to explore them in greater detail than ever before. We introduce a new, computationally scalable fiber orientation distribution (FOD) estimator called the blockwise James-Stein (BJS) estimator, which allows us to extract voxel-level directional information from D-MRI data. BJS is applied to the D-MRI data from the Human Connectome Project to study brain lateralization in the Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus (SLF), a major association fiber tract that is involved with motor, visual, spatial, memory, and language functions. We were able to identify significant differences in hemispheric asymmetry between right-handed and left-handed individuals. Our research offers insights into the workings of the human brain with D-MRI data.