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Structural properties of the corticospinal tract in the human brain: a magnetic resonance imaging study at 7 Tesla

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Abstract

Several fibre tracts can be accurately located using conventional Magnetic Resonance Images (MRI) of the human brain, including the corticospinal tract (CST), which appears as a T 1-weighted hypointense/T 2-weighted hyperintense patch in the posterior part of the posterior-limb of the internal capsule (PLIC). Here we use high-field MRI (7T) to assess the quantitative MRI properties of the CST at the PLIC level in 22 healthy young male participants. We used three different imaging modalities: the T 1 and T 2 relaxation times (T 1 and T 2) and the Magnetization Transfer Ratio (MTR). These measurements obtained in the CST were compared with those in the anterior two-thirds of the PLIC. We observed longer T 1 and T 2 and lower MTR in the CST region compared with the adjacent (control) PLIC region. This effect is consistent with the presence of sparsely distributed, large-diameter fibres described in previous histological studies and, as such, might reflect lower myelin density and/or different morphology of fibres in the CST.

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Acknowledgments

PYH was supported by a grant from the Fondation Recherche Medicale.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Pierre-Yves Hervé & Tomas Paus

  2. Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Eleanor F. Cox, Ashley K. Lotfipour, Olivier E. Mougin, Richard W. Bowtell & Penny A. Gowland

  3. Rotman Research Institute, University of Toronto, 3560 Bathurst Street, Toronto, ON, M6A 2E1, Canada

    Tomas Paus

  4. Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Tomas Paus

  5. Univ. de Bordeaux, CNRS, CEA, Groupe d’Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, UMR5296, 33000, Bordeaux, France

    Pierre-Yves Hervé

Authors
  1. Pierre-Yves Hervé
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  2. Eleanor F. Cox
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  3. Ashley K. Lotfipour
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  4. Olivier E. Mougin
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  5. Richard W. Bowtell
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  6. Penny A. Gowland
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  7. Tomas Paus
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Correspondence to Pierre-Yves Hervé or Tomas Paus.

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Hervé, PY., Cox, E.F., Lotfipour, A.K. et al. Structural properties of the corticospinal tract in the human brain: a magnetic resonance imaging study at 7 Tesla. Brain Struct Funct 216, 255–262 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-011-0306-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-011-0306-0

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