Xi Wu1,2, Qing Xu3, Jiliu Zhou1, Adam W. Anderson2,4, Zhaohua Ding2,3
1School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan, China; 2Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; 3Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA; 4Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA
Diffusion tensor imaging based fiber tractography has become a primary tool for non-invasive exploration of white matter structures in the human brain. To reliably track fiber pathways, a novel technique based on well established genetic algorithms was proposed in this work. Compared to existing methods, the new tracking algorithm incorporates a global constraint, thus making it insusceptible to image noise and other local artifacts. In addition, it generates fiber pathways that are independent of the tracking direction this greatly benefits subsequent quantitative characterization of structure connectivity between two regions.