ArticleNeuroImage2019
Limits to anatomical accuracy of diffusion tractography using modern approaches.
Article in NeuroImage, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 155 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
155 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Parcellation-based tractographic modeling of the salience network through meta-analysis.Brain and behavior · 2022Pooled it
- White matter variability, cognition, and disorders: a systematic review.Brain structure & function · 2022Pooled it
- Tractography reproducibility challenge with empirical data (TraCED): The 2017 ISMRM diffusion study group challenge.Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI · 2020Pooled it
- Selective Brain Network and Cellular Responses Upon Dimethyl Fumarate Immunomodulation in Multiple Sclerosis.Frontiers in immunology · 2019Trial
- Graph-Based White Matter Tractometry: Methods, Applications, and the Path to Validation.Neuroinformatics · 2026Review
- Rethinking white matter-tumor interaction: a tractography based analysis of associations between fractional anisotropy and morphometry in the IFOF and arcuate fasciculus.Journal of neuro-oncology · 2026Article
- Clinically Feasible White Matter Fiber Tractography in Peritumoral Zones With Cerebral Vasogenic Edema.Magnetic resonance in medicine · 2026Article
- Protocol for diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and tractography in ex vivo mouse models.STAR protocols · 2026Article
- Scaling up polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography to image the whole macaque brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Hierarchical Network Adaptations and Structure-Function Scaffolding in the Deaf Adult Brain.Brain topography · 2026Article
- Hip joint image quality screening based on the Diffusion Mamba model.Scientific data · 2026Article
- Conserved fiber topography of the anterior limb of the internal capsule in treatment-resistant psychiatric patients.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Anatomically constrained and curated cerebellar tractography (ACCURAT): an open framework and a pathway-specific neuroanatomical reference.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Connectome-based spatial statistics enabling large-scale population analyses of human connectome across cohorts.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Bridging Histology and Tractography: First In Vivo Visualization of Short-Range Prefrontal Connections Informed by Primate Tract-Tracing.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Mind the brain age: How segmentation and template selection reshape structural connectomes.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- An evaluation of the efficacy of single-echo and multi-echo fMRI denoising strategies.Network neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Deterministic or probabilistic tractography? Choosing the appropriate approach in clinical neurosurgery and neuroradiology practice.Polish journal of radiology · 2026Review
- Automated PACS-integrated pipeline for TractSeg-based segmentation of the arcuate fasciculus in patients with hearing loss.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
95 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
42 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Diffusion MRI fiber tractography is widely used to probe the structural connectivity of the brain, with a range of applications in both clinical and basic neuroscience. Despite widespread use, tractography has well-known pitfalls that limits the anatomical accuracy of this technique. Numerous modern methods have been developed to address these shortcomings through advances in acquisition, modeling, and computation. To test whether these advances improve tractography accuracy, we organized the 3-D Validation of Tractography with Experimental MRI (3D-VoTEM) challenge at the ISBI 2018 conference. We made available three unique independent tractography validation datasets - a physical phantom and two ex vivo brain specimens - resulting in 176 distinct submissions from 9 research groups. By comparing results over a wide range of fiber complexities and algorithmic strategies, this challenge provides a more comprehensive assessment of tractography's inherent limitations than has been reported previously. The central results were consistent across all sub-challenges in that, despite advances in tractography methods, the anatomical accuracy of tractography has not dramatically improved in recent years. Taken together, our results independently confirm findings from decades of tractography validation studies, demonstrate inherent limitations in reconstructing white matter pathways using diffusion MRI data alone, and highlight the need for alternative or combinatorial strategies to accurately map the fiber pathways of the brain.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.