Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Neuroimage. 2018 Apr 15;170:222-230. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.04.070. Epub 2017 May 3.
Mesopontine tegmental nuclei such as the cuneiform, pedunculotegmental, oral pontine reticular, paramedian raphe and caudal linear raphe nuclei, are deep brain structures involved in arousal and motor function. Dysfunction of these nuclei is implicated in the pathogenesis of disorders of consciousness and sleep, as well as in neurodegenerative diseases. However, their localization in conventional neuroimages of living humans is difficult due to limited image sensitivity and contrast, and a stereotaxic probabilistic neuroimaging template of these nuclei in humans does not exist. We used semi-automatic segmentation of single-subject 1.1mm-isotropic 7T diffusion-fractional-anisotropy and T-weighted images in healthy adults to generate an in vivo probabilistic neuroimaging structural template of these nuclei in standard stereotaxic (Montreal Neurological Institute, MNI) space. The template was validated through independent manual delineation, as well as leave-one-out validation and evaluation of nuclei volumes. This template can enable localization of five mesopontine tegmental nuclei in conventional images (e.g. 1.5T, 3T) in future studies of arousal and motor physiology (e.g. sleep, anesthesia, locomotion) and pathology (e.g. disorders of consciousness, sleep disorders, Parkinson's disease). The 7T magnetic resonance imaging procedure for single-subject delineation of these nuclei may also prove useful for future 7T studies of arousal and motor mechanisms.
中脑被盖网状核等，如楔形核、脚桥被盖核、桥脑嘴侧网状核、中线旁中缝核和尾侧线性中缝核，是参与觉醒和运动功能的深部脑结构。这些核团的功能障碍与意识和睡眠障碍以及神经退行性疾病的发病机制有关。然而，由于常规神经影像的灵敏度和对比度有限，这些核团在活体人类的常规神经影像中难以定位，而且人类这些核团的立体定向概率神经影像学模板也不存在。我们使用健康成年人的 1.1mm 各向同性 7T 弥散分数各向异性和 T 加权图像的半自动分割，在标准立体定向（蒙特利尔神经学研究所，MNI）空间生成这些核团的活体概率神经影像学结构模板。该模板通过独立的手动勾画、留一法验证和核团体积评估进行验证。该模板可在未来的觉醒和运动生理学（如睡眠、麻醉、运动）和病理学（如意识障碍、睡眠障碍、帕金森病）研究中，用于在常规影像（如 1.5T、3T）中定位五个中脑被盖核。这些核团的单个体 7T 磁共振成像勾画程序也可能对未来关于觉醒和运动机制的 7T 研究有用。
