Towards Linking Diffusion MRI based Macro-and Microstructure Measures with Cortico-Cortical Transmission in Brain Tumor Patients

Patryk Filipiak (1, 2) , Fabien Almairac (3) , Théodore Papadopoulo (1, 2) , Denys Fontaine (3) , Lydiane Mondot (3) , Stéphane Chanalet (3) , Rachid Deriche (1, 2) , Maureen Clerc (1, 2) , Demian Wassermann (4, 5)

1 ATHENA - Computational Imaging of the Central Nervous System
2 CRISAM - Inria Sophia Antipolis - Méditerranée
3 CHU Nice - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice
4 CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives
5 Inria Saclay - Ile de France

We aimed to link macro-and microstructure measures of brain white matter obtained from diffusion MRI with effective connectivity measures based on a propagation of cortico-cortical evoked potentials induced with intrasurgical direct electrical stimulation. For this, we compared streamline lengths and log-transformed ratios of streamlines computed from presurgical diffusion-weighted images, and the delays and amplitudes of N1 peaks recorded intrasurgically with electrocorticography electrodes in a pilot study of 9 brain tumor patients. Our results showed positive correlation between these two modalities in the vicinity of the stimulation sites (Pearson coefficient 0.54±0.13 for N1 delays, and 0.47±0.23 for N1 amplitudes), which could correspond to the neural propagation via U-fibers. In addition, we reached high sensitivities (0.78±0.07) and very high specificities (0.93±0.03) in a binary variant of our comparison. Finally, we used the structural connectivity measures to predict the effective connectivity using a multiple linear regression model, and showed a significant role of brain microstructure-related indices in this relation.

Mots clés: structural connectivity; brain white matter microstrucure; effective connectivity; cortico-cortical evoked potentials; direct electrical stimulation; tractography

Domaines: Neurosciences

Patryk Filipiak, Fabien Almairac, Théodore Papadopoulo, Denys Fontaine, Lydiane Mondot, et al.. Towards Linking Diffusion MRI based Macro-and Microstructure Measures with Cortico-Cortical Transmission in Brain Tumor Patients. NeuroImage, inPress, ⟨10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117567⟩. ⟨hal-03015641⟩