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Cross-subject variability of the optic radiation anatomy in a cohort of 1065 healthy subjects

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Abstract

Introduction

Optic radiations are tracts of particular interest for neurosurgery, especially for temporal lobe resection, because their lesion is responsible for visual field defects. However, histological and MRI studies found a high inter-subject variability of the optic radiation anatomy, especially for their most rostral extent inside the Meyer’s temporal loop. We aimed to better assess inter-subject anatomical variability of the optic radiations, in order to help to reduce the risk of postoperative visual field deficiencies.

Methods

Using an advanced analysis pipeline relying on a whole-brain probabilistic tractography and fiber clustering, we processed the diffusion MRI data of the 1065 subjects of the HCP cohort. After registration in a common space, a cross-subject clustering on the whole cohort was performed to reconstruct the reference optic radiation bundle, from which all optic radiations were segmented on an individual scale.

Results

We found a median distance between the rostral tip of the temporal pole and the rostral tip of the optic radiation of 29.2 mm (standard deviation: 2.1 mm) for the right side and 28.8 mm (standard deviation: 2.3 mm) for the left side. The difference between both hemispheres was statistically significant (p = 1.10–8).

Conclusion

We demonstrated inter-individual variability of the anatomy of the optic radiations on a large-scale study, especially their rostral extension. In order to better guide neurosurgical procedures, we built a MNI-based reference atlas of the optic radiations that can be used for fast optic radiation reconstruction from any individual diffusion MRI tractography.

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Data availability

This research was performed on the Wu-Minn HCP Database, an open-access MRI database available at https://www.humanconnectome.org/. All analyses were performed using the Ginkgo toolbox developed by the CEA/NeuroSpin team and freely available at https://framagit.org/cpoupon/gkg

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Acknowledgements

Data were provided by the Human Connectome Project, WU-Minn Consortium (Principal Investigators: David Van Essen and Kamil Ugurbil; 1U54MH091657) funded by the 16 NIH Institutes and Centers that support the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research; and by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience at Washington University. This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation under the specific Grant No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA3).

Funding

This research has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Program for Research and Innovation under the specific Grant No. 945539 (Human Brain Project SGA3). Authors disclose no other financial or non-financial interests that could be directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BAOBAB, NeuroSpin, Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, CEA, Gif-Sur-Yvette, France

    B. Herlin, I. Uszynski, M. Chauvel & C. Poupon

  2. AP-HP, Epilepsy Unit, GH Pitié-Salpêtrière-Charles Foix, 47-83 Boulevard de L’Hôpital, 75013, Paris, France

    B. Herlin & S. Dupont

  3. Sorbonne Université, Paris, France

    B. Herlin & S. Dupont

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Contributions

BH: Protocol/project development, Data collection or management, Data analysis, Manuscript writing. IUi: Protocol/project development, Data management, Data Analysis, Manuscript writing/editing. MC: Protocol/project development, Data analysis. CP: Protocol/project development, Manuscript writing/editing. SD: Protocol/project development, Manuscript writing/editing.

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Correspondence to B. Herlin.

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Ethical approval

This research was performed on the Wu-Minn HCP Database, an open-access MRI database available at https://www.humanconnectome.org/. Subjects included had given their written consent to the Wu-Minn Consortium for their data to be published in open-access and reused for other studies. All authors approved the DataUse Terms from the Wu-Minn HCP Consortium, a guideline for accessing, using and performing analyses on this open-access database. We followed the French ethical guidelines and the current French legislation, i.e.: The World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects (https://www.wma.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/DoH-Oct2013-JAMA.pdf) and the French Public Health Law n°2004–806 (https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000787078/).

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Herlin, B., Uszynski, I., Chauvel, M. et al. Cross-subject variability of the optic radiation anatomy in a cohort of 1065 healthy subjects. Surg Radiol Anat 45, 849–858 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00276-023-03161-4

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