A Tractography Analysis Framework Using Diffusion Maps to Study Thalamic Connectivity in Traumatic Brain Injury

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new tractography framework using diffusion maps to analyze thalamic connectivity changes in TBI, aiming to identify biomarkers linked to injury severity and recovery.

Contribution

It presents a novel diffusion map-based approach for detailed analysis of white matter tract microstructure in TBI patients, enhancing biomarker detection.

Findings

Significant correlation between diffusion map features and functional outcomes

Diffusion maps reveal microstructural changes not captured by traditional methods

Potential biomarkers for TBI severity and recovery trajectories

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) disrupts thalamocortical connectivity, contributing to cognitive impairment and post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). This study presents a novel tractography-based framework that leverages diffusion maps to capture microstructural and organizational changes in thalamic white matter pathways. By analyzing individual streamline characteristics, we identified significant associations between diffusion map embeddings and functional outcomes (GOSE scores), highlighting potential biomarkers for injury severity and recovery trajectories. Our findings suggest that fine-grained geometric features of white matter tracts may provide a more sensitive marker for TBI-related alterations.