Helena Melero, Anupa Ambili Vijayakumari, Eduardo Caverzasi, Fang-Cheng Yeh, René Labounek, Daniel Bullock, Vivek Prabhakaran, Shaun Warrington, Ping Hong Yeh, Narciso López-López, Mavilde Arantes, Michael Lauricella, Katja Heuer, Vince D. Calhoun, Francisco Guerreiro Fernandes, Aristotle N. Voineskos, Fan Zhang, Claire E. Kelly, Sila Genc, Franco Pestilli, Giorgio M. Innocenti, Rujirutana Srikanchana, Erick J. Canales-Rodríguez, Jonathan Rafael-Patino, Alessandro Daducci, Philippe Karan, Christophe Lenglet, Michael Joseph, Garikoitz Lerma-Usabiaga, Jian Chen, Lucius S. Fekonja, Sarah R. Heilbronner, Yihao Xia, Lucas Roitman, Matteo Mancini, Cristina Granziera, Dogu Baran Aydogan, Stephen J. Wastling, Wataru Uchida, Sirio Cocozza, Kiran K. Seunarine, Eleftherios Garyfallidis, Drew Parker, Hojjatollah Azadbakht, Ragini Verma, Simona Schiavi, Laura Korobova, Giuseppe Pontillo, Masahiro Abe, Nikos Makris, Egidio D'Angelo, Cyril Poupon, Gabriel Girard, Jerome Joseph Maller, Ramón Aranda, Jerome Cochereau, Bennett A. Landman, François Rheault, Andrea Vázquez, Muhamed Barakovic, Gabrielle Grenier, Maria Petracca, Giovanni Savini, Louise Emsell, Colin B. Hansen, Elda Fischi-Gomez, Claudia A. M. Wheeler-Kingshott, José Paulo Andrade, Lidia Manzanedo, Emilio Sanz-Morales, Sjoerd B. Vos, Roza G. Bayrak, Mariano Rivera Meraz, Wei Tang, Yonggang Shi, Mathijs Raemaekers, Stefan Sunaert, Fernando Calamante, Stijn Michielse, Yang Zhan, Laura Mancini, Susana M. Silva, Josselin Houenou, Maxime Descoteaux, Chris A. Clark, Alberto De Luca, Rajikha Raja, Alexandra J. Golby, Bramsh Qamar Chandio, Ryan P. Cabeen, Vejay N. Vakharia, Javier Guaje, Amy Paulson, Laurent Petit, Igor Nestrasil, Adam W. Anderson, Ahmed Radwan, Edith Brignoni-Pérez, Pamela Guevara, Ángel Peña-Melián, Joseph Yuan-Mou Yang, Arthur W. Toga, Arnaud Attyé, Luis Concha, John S. Duncan, Yogesh Rathi, Navona Calarco, Mario Ocampo-Pineda, Nicolò Rolandi, Alexander Leemans, Hajer Nakua, Christina Andica, Marco Pizzolato, Yuya Saito, Lauren J. O'Donnell, Jon Haitz Legarreta, Thomas Welton, Chun-Hung Yeh, Štefánia Aulická, Fabien Almairac, Claude J. Bajada, Koji Kamagata, Vishwesh Nath, Chantal M. W. Tax, Alonso Ramirez-Manzanares, Jess E. Reynolds, Kurt G. Schilling, Thomas Yu, Hamied A. Haroon, Jean-Philippe Thiran, Veena A. Nair, Maxime Chamberland, Simone Sacco, Chiara Maffei, Jean-François Mangin, Colin D. McKnight, Andrew L. Alexander, Catherine Lebel, C. Roman, Nagesh Adluru, Fulvia Palesi, RS: MHeNs - R3 - Neuroscience, Neurochirurgie, Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab [Sherbrooke] (SCIL), Département d'informatique [Sherbrooke] (UdeS), Faculté des sciences [Sherbrooke] (UdeS), Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS)-Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS)-Faculté des sciences [Sherbrooke] (UdeS), Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS)-Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS), Groupe d'imagerie neurofonctionnelle (GIN), Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives [Bordeaux] (IMN), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives [Bordeaux] (IMN), Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Hôpital Pasteur [Nice] (CHU), Université Côte d'Azur (UCA), Service NEUROSPIN (NEUROSPIN), Université Paris-Saclay-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), Evolution et ingénierie de systèmes dynamiques (SEED (UMR-S 1284/U 1284)), Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université Paris Cité (UPCité), ANR-19-CE45-0022,IFOPASUBA,Inférence d'atlas de faisceaux en U spécifiques à chaque motif du plissement cortical(2019), Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Université Paris-Saclay, Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire / Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity [Paris, France] (CRI), and Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université de Paris (UP)-Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM)-Université de Paris (UP)
Available online 22 August 2021. White matter bundle segmentation using diffusion MRI fiber tractography has become the method of choice to identify white matter fiber pathways in vivo in human brains. However, like other analyses of complex data, there is considerable variability in segmentation protocols and techniques. This can result in different reconstructions of the same intended white matter pathways, which directly affects tractography results, quantification, and interpretation. In this study, we aim to evaluate and quantify the variability that arises from different protocols for bundle segmentation. Through an open call to users of fiber tractography, including anatomists, clinicians, and algorithm developers, 42 independent teams were given processed sets of human whole-brain streamlines and asked to segment 14 white matter fascicles on six subjects. In total, we received 57 different bundle segmentation protocols, which enabled detailed volume-based and streamline-based analyses of agreement and disagreement among protocols for each fiber pathway. Results show that even when given the exact same sets of underlying streamlines, the variability across protocols for bundle segmentation is greater than all other sources of variability in the virtual dissection process, including variability within protocols and variability across subjects. In order to foster the use of tractography bundle dissection in routine clinical settings, and as a fundamental analytical tool, future endeavors must aim to resolve and reduce this heterogeneity. Although external validation is needed to verify the anatomical accuracy of bundle dissections, reducing heterogeneity is a step towards reproducible research and may be achieved through the use of standard nomenclature and definitions of white matter bundles and well-chosen constraints and decisions in the dissection process. This work was conducted in part using the resources of the Ad- vanced Computing Center for Research and Education at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. KS, BL, CH were supported by the Na- tional Institutes of Health under award numbers R01EB017230, and T32EB001628, and in part by ViSE/VICTR VR3029 and the National Center for Research Resources, Grant UL1 RR024975-01. This work was also possible thanks to the support of the Institutional Research Chair in NeuroInformatics of Universitéde Sherbrooke, NSERC and Compute Canada (MD, FR). MP received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sk ł odowska-Curie grant agreement No 754462. The Wisconsin group acknowledges the support from a core grant to the Waisman Cen- ter from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Develop- ment (IDDRC U54 HD090256). NSF OAC-1916518, NSF IIS-1912270, NSF IIS-1636893, NSF BCS-1734853, NIH NIBIB 1R01EB029272-01, and a Microsoft Faculty Fellowship to F.P. LF acknowledges the sup- port of the Cluster of Excellence Matters of Activity. Image Space Mate- rial funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Re- search Foundation) under Germany´s Excellence Strategy –EXC 2025. SW is supported by a Medical Research Council PhD Studentship UK [MR/N013913/1]. The Nottingham group’s processing was performed using the University of Nottingham’s Augusta HPC service and the Pre- cision Imaging Beacon Cluster. JPA, MA and SMS acknowledges the support of FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within CIN- TESIS, R&D Unit (reference UID/IC/4255/2013). MM was funded by the Wellcome Trust through a Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellow- ship [213722/Z/18/Z]. EJC-R is supported by the Swiss National Sci- ence Foundation (SNSF, Ambizione grant PZ00P2 185814/1). CMWT is supported by a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship (215944/Z/19/Z) and a Veni grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) (17331). FC acknowledges the support of the National Health and Medical Re- search Council of Australia (APP1091593 and APP1117724) and the Australian Research Council (DP170101815). NSF OAC-1916518, NSF IIS-1912270, NSF IIS-1636893, NSF BCS-1734853, Microsoft Faculty Fellowship to F.P. D.B. was partially supported by NIH NIMH T32- MH103213 to William Hetrick (Indiana University). CL is partly sup- ported by NIH grants P41 EB027061 and P30 NS076408 “Institutional Center Cores for Advanced Neuroimaging. JYMY received positional funding from the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation (RCH 1000). JYMY, JC, and CEK acknowledge the support of the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The Uni- versity of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics, and the Victorian Gov- ernment’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. C-HY is grateful to the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MOST 109-2222- E-182-001-MY3) for the support. LC acknowledges support from CONA- CYT and UNAM. ARM acknowledges support from CONACYT. LJO, YR, and FZ were supported by NIH P41EB015902 and R01MH119222. AJG was supported by P41EB015898. NM was supported by R01MH119222, K24MH116366, and R01MH111917. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Pro- gramme under Grant Agreement No. 785907 & 945539 (HBP SGA2 & SGA3), and from the ANR IFOPASUBA- 19-CE45-0022-01. PG, CR, NL and AV were partially supported by ANID-Basal FB0008 and ANID- FONDECYT 1190701 grants. We would like to acknowledge John C Gore, Hiromasa Takemura, Anastasia Yendiki, and Riccardo Galbusera for their helplful suggestions regarding the analysis, figures, and discussions.