1Neuroimaging
Laboratory, IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy; 2Dep of Neuroscience,
Trieste University, Trieste, Italy; 3Neuroimaging Laboratory,
Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome, Italy; 4Department of Clinical and
Behavioural Neurology, IRCCS Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy; 5Stroke Unit,
Department of Neuroscience, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy; 6Department
of Clinical and Behavioural Neurology, IRCCS Santa Lucia Foundation, Rome,
Italy; 7Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre, Brighton & Sussex
Medical School, Falmer, United Kingdom
Our aim is to validate precedent approach for thalamic parcellation based on probabilistic tractography and to compare structural and functional connectivity between the thalamus and the cerebral cortex. We used DTI tractography to define distinct thalamic nuclei connected to different cortical areas. Seed-based RS-fMRI was then performed to identify the cortical areas more strongly connected with thalamic nuclei previously obtained. The results were visually compared to cross-validate these 2 commonly used approaches to assess anatomical and functional connectivity. Our results confirm the reproducibility of thalamic parcellation based on probabilistic tractography and show that these two methods yield partially consistent results.