Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.06.21.157222v1?rss=1 Authors: Spencer, A., Byrne, H., Lee-Kelland, R., Jary, S., Thoresen, M., Cowan, F., Chakkarapani, E., Brooks, J. C. W. Abstract: Diffusion MRI allows non-invasive assessment of white matter maturation in typical development and of white matter damage due to brain injury or pathology. Reliably attributing diffusion metrics to specific white matter pathways either requires use of lengthy acquisition protocols with numerous diffusion directions, which may be problematic in certain cohorts (e.g. children or adults with mild cognitive impairment), or probabilistic white matter atlases, which allow delineation of white matter tracts without the need to perform tractography, thus eliminating the need for the extensive scans required for modern tractography algorithms. However, given the known age-dependency of developmental change in white matter it may not be optimal to use an adult template when assessing data acquired from children. This study develops an age-specific probabilistic white matter atlas for delineation of 12 major white matter tracts in children aged 6-8 years. By comparing to fibre tracking in individuals, we demonstrate that this age-specific atlas gives better overall performance than simply registering to the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) adult white matter template in both data acquired from a single cohort on a single scanner (age-specific r = 0.72; JHU r = 0.54) and from a cohort taken from the ABIDE dataset (age-specific r = 0.75; JHU r = 0.72). Accuracy was assessed by comparing estimates of tract-level diffusion metrics, using the age-specific and adult templates, to results of subject-specific tracing. To our knowledge, this is the first publicly available probabilistic atlas of white matter tracts for this age group. We then use the age-specific atlas to provide evidence for reduced fractional anisotropy in several tracts in children who were treated with therapeutic hypothermia for neonatal encephalopathy at birth and did not have cerebral palsy, compared with controls matched for age, sex and socio-economic status. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info