Analysis of vascular homogeneity and anisotropy on high-resolution primate brain imaging

Pol Kennel (1) , Caroline Fonta (2) , Romain Guibert (1) , Franck Plouraboué (1)

1 IMFT - Institut de mécanique des fluides de Toulouse
2 CERCO - Centre de recherche cerveau et cognition

Using a systematic investigation of brain blood volume, in high-resolution synchrotron 3D images of microvascular structures within cortical regions of a primate brain, we challenge several basic questions regarding possible vascular bias in high-resolution functional neuroimaging. We present a bilateral comparison of cortical regions, where we analyze relative vascular volume in voxels from 150 to 1000 lm side lengths in the white and grey matter. We show that, if voxel size reaches a scale smaller than 300 mm, the vascular volume can no longer be considered homogeneous, either within one hemisphere or in bilateral comparison between samples. We demonstrate that voxel size influences the comparison between vessel-relative volume distributions depending on the scale considered (i.e., hemisphere, lobe, or sample). Furthermore, we also investigate how voxel anisotropy and orientation can affect the apparent vascular volume, in accordance with actual fMRI voxel sizes. These findings are discussed from the various perspectives of high-resolution brain functional imaging

Mots clés: Cortex; Marmoset monkey; Vessel density; CBV; Micro-CT; Voxel size; Vascular homogeneity; fMRI

Domaines: Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]; Physique Médicale [physics.med-ph]; Neurosciences [q-bio.NC]

Pol Kennel, Caroline Fonta, Romain Guibert, Franck Plouraboué. Analysis of vascular homogeneity and anisotropy on high-resolution primate brain imaging. Human Brain Mapping, 2017, pp. 1-22. ⟨10.1002/hbm.23766⟩. ⟨hal-01590915⟩