The relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain
Abstract The white matter of the human brain exhibits highly ordered anisotropic structures of both axonal nerve fibers and cerebral vasculature. Separately, the anisotropic nature of white matter axons and white matter vasculature have been shown to cause an orientation dependence on various MRI co...
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Nature Portfolio
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Scientific Reports |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-99724-z |
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| author | Kurt G. Schilling Allen Newton Chantal M. W. Tax Maxime Chamberland Samuel W. Remedios Yurui Gao Muwei Li Catie Chang Francois Rheault Farshid Sepherband Adam Anderson John C. Gore Bennett Landman |
| author_facet | Kurt G. Schilling Allen Newton Chantal M. W. Tax Maxime Chamberland Samuel W. Remedios Yurui Gao Muwei Li Catie Chang Francois Rheault Farshid Sepherband Adam Anderson John C. Gore Bennett Landman |
| author_sort | Kurt G. Schilling |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The white matter of the human brain exhibits highly ordered anisotropic structures of both axonal nerve fibers and cerebral vasculature. Separately, the anisotropic nature of white matter axons and white matter vasculature have been shown to cause an orientation dependence on various MRI contrasts used to study the structure and function of the brain; however, little is known of the relationship between axonal and vascular orientations. Thus, the aim of this study is to compare the orientation between nerve fibers and vasculature within the white matter. To do this, we use diffusion MRI and susceptibility weighted imaging acquired in the same healthy young adult volunteers and analyze the alignment between white matter fibers and blood vessels in different brain regions, and along different pathways, to determine the degree of alignment between these structures. We first describe vascular orientation throughout the brain and note several regions with consistent orientations across individuals. Next, we find that vasculature does not necessarily align with the dominant direction of white matter in many regions, but, due to the presence of crossing fiber populations, does align with at least some white matter within each MRI voxel. Even though the spatial patterns of blood vessels run in parallel to several white matter tracts, they do not do so along the entire pathway, nor for all pathways, suggesting that vasculature does not supply/drain blood in a tract-specific manner. Overall, these findings suggest that the vascular architecture within the white matter is closely related to, but not the same as, the organization of neural pathways. This study contributes to a better understanding of the microstructural arrangement of the brain and may have implications for interpreting neuroimaging data in health and disease. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-d29663e3c80c4fe0bf7f25307f5eb664 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2045-2322 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Scientific Reports |
| spelling | doaj-art-d29663e3c80c4fe0bf7f25307f5eb6642025-08-20T03:22:03ZengNature PortfolioScientific Reports2045-23222025-05-0115111310.1038/s41598-025-99724-zThe relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brainKurt G. Schilling0Allen Newton1Chantal M. W. Tax2Maxime Chamberland3Samuel W. Remedios4Yurui Gao5Muwei Li6Catie Chang7Francois Rheault8Farshid Sepherband9Adam Anderson10John C. Gore11Bennett Landman12Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceVanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceImage Sciences Institute, University Medical Center UtrechtDepartment of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of TechnologyDepartment of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins UniversityVanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceVanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceVanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceSherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab (SCIL), Computer Science Department, Université de SherbrookeUSC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern CaliforniaVanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceVanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceVanderbilt University Institute of Imaging ScienceAbstract The white matter of the human brain exhibits highly ordered anisotropic structures of both axonal nerve fibers and cerebral vasculature. Separately, the anisotropic nature of white matter axons and white matter vasculature have been shown to cause an orientation dependence on various MRI contrasts used to study the structure and function of the brain; however, little is known of the relationship between axonal and vascular orientations. Thus, the aim of this study is to compare the orientation between nerve fibers and vasculature within the white matter. To do this, we use diffusion MRI and susceptibility weighted imaging acquired in the same healthy young adult volunteers and analyze the alignment between white matter fibers and blood vessels in different brain regions, and along different pathways, to determine the degree of alignment between these structures. We first describe vascular orientation throughout the brain and note several regions with consistent orientations across individuals. Next, we find that vasculature does not necessarily align with the dominant direction of white matter in many regions, but, due to the presence of crossing fiber populations, does align with at least some white matter within each MRI voxel. Even though the spatial patterns of blood vessels run in parallel to several white matter tracts, they do not do so along the entire pathway, nor for all pathways, suggesting that vasculature does not supply/drain blood in a tract-specific manner. Overall, these findings suggest that the vascular architecture within the white matter is closely related to, but not the same as, the organization of neural pathways. This study contributes to a better understanding of the microstructural arrangement of the brain and may have implications for interpreting neuroimaging data in health and disease.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-99724-z |
| spellingShingle | Kurt G. Schilling Allen Newton Chantal M. W. Tax Maxime Chamberland Samuel W. Remedios Yurui Gao Muwei Li Catie Chang Francois Rheault Farshid Sepherband Adam Anderson John C. Gore Bennett Landman The relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain Scientific Reports |
| title | The relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain |
| title_full | The relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain |
| title_fullStr | The relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain |
| title_full_unstemmed | The relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain |
| title_short | The relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain |
| title_sort | relationship of white matter tract orientation to vascular geometry in the human brain |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-99724-z |
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