The Superoanterior Fasciculus (SAF): A Novel White Matter Pathway in the Human Brain?

Szabolcs David, Anneriet M. Heemskerk, Francesco Corrivetti, Michel Thiebaut de Schotten, Silvio Sarubbo, Francesco Corsini, Alessandro De Benedictis, Laurent Petit, Max A. Viergever, Derek K. Jones, Emmanuel Mandonnet, Hubertus Axer, John Evans, Tomáš Paus, Alexander Leemans
Front. Neuroanat.. 2019-03-05; 13:
DOI: 10.3389/fnana.2019.00024

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David S(1), Heemskerk AM(1), Corrivetti F(2), Thiebaut de Schotten M(3), Sarubbo S(4), Corsini F(4), De Benedictis A(5), Petit L(6), Viergever MA(1), Jones DK(7), Mandonnet E(2), Axer H(8), Evans J(7), Paus T(9)(10), Leemans A(1).

Author information:
(1)Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht and Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands.
(2)Department of Neurosurgery, Lariboisière Hospital, APHP, Paris, France.
(3)Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, London, United Kingdom.
(4)Structural and Functional Connectivity Lab Project, Department of Emergency, Division of Neurosurgery, “S. Chiara” Hospital, Azienda Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari (APSS), Trento, Italy.
(5)Department of Neurosciences, Division of Neurosurgery, “Bambino Gesù” Children Hospital, IRCCS, Rome, Italy.
(6)Groupe d’Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle (GIN), Institut des Maladies Neurodégératives (IMN)-UMR5293-CNRS, CEA, Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France.
(7)Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre, School of Psychology, Cardiff, United Kingdom.
(8)Hans Berger Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
(9)Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
(10)Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Fiber tractography (FT) using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is widely used for investigating microstructural properties of white matter (WM) fiber-bundles and for mapping structural connections of the human brain. While studying the architectural configuration of the brain’s circuitry with FT is not without controversy, recent progress in acquisition, processing, modeling, analysis, and visualization of dMRI data pushes forward the reliability in reconstructing WM pathways. Despite being aware of the well-known pitfalls in analyzing dMRI data and several other limitations of FT discussed in recent literature, we present the superoanterior fasciculus (SAF), a novel bilateral fiber tract in the frontal region of the human brain that-to the best of our knowledge-has not been documented. The SAF has a similar shape to the anterior
part of the cingulum bundle, but it is located more frontally. To minimize the possibility that these FT findings are based on acquisition or processing artifacts, different dMRI data sets and processing pipelines have been used to describe the SAF. Furthermore, we evaluated the configuration of the SAF with complementary methods, such as polarized light imaging (PLI) and human brain dissections. The FT results of the SAF demonstrate a long pathway, consistent across individuals, while the human dissections indicate fiber pathways connecting the postero-dorsal with the antero-dorsal cortices of the frontal lobe.

 

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