ArticlePloS one2020
Diffusion tensor tractography of brainstem fibers and its application in pain.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microstructural white matter alterations associated with migraine headaches: a systematic review of diffusion tensor imaging studies.Brain imaging and behavior · 2022Pooled it
- White matter tracts associated with iTBS-induced heart rate deceleration and treatment response in major depressive disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Automated Segmentation of Brainstem and Subcortical White Matter: Mapping the Deep Tegmental Core with BundleParc.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging evidence for a dopamine-independent association between motor cortex microstructure and Parkinson's disease severity.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
- Structure-function coupling in the human brainstem.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neuroimaging-Guided Insights into the Molecular and Network Mechanisms of Chronic Pain and Neuromodulation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- High Resolution Postmortem MRI Discovers Developing Structural Connectivity in the Human Ascending Arousal Network.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Knowledge, mechanisms, and intervention of the polytrauma clinical triad in military pain medicine.The Korean journal of pain · 2025Review
- Sex differences in pain perception and modulation in the brain: effects of insular cortex stimulation on chronic pain relief.Brain communications · 2025Article
- Sphenoid sinus hyperpneumatization: anatomical variants, molecular blueprints, and AI-augmented roadmaps for skull base surgery.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Review
- Advances in Neuroimaging of Breast Cancer Pain: An Overview.Journal of pain research · 2025Review
- 3.0 T diffusion tensor imaging and fiber tractography of the testes in nonobstructive azoospermia.Abdominal radiology (New York) · 2024Article
- An MRI Deep Brain Adult Template With An Advanced Atlas-Based Tool For Diffusion Tensor Imaging Analysis.Scientific data · 2024Article
- State-of-the-art imaging of neuromodulatory subcortical systems in aging and Alzheimer's disease: Challenges and opportunities.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2023Review
- Diffusion tensor imaging reveals sex differences in pain sensitivity of rats.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Article
- Gut-brain pathogenesis of post-acute COVID-19 neurocognitive symptoms.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- Improving tractography in brainstem cavernoma patients by distortion correction.Brain & spine · 2023Article
- The role of the brainstem in sleep disturbances and chronic pain of Gulf War and Iraq/Afghanistan veterans.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2023Article
- Microstructural Properties of Brain White Matter Tracts in Breast Cancer Survivors: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study.Pathophysiology : the official journal of the International Society for Pathophysiology · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Evaluation of brainstem pathways with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tractography may provide insights into pathophysiologies associated with dysfunction of key brainstem circuits. However, identification of these tracts has been elusive, with relatively few in vivo human studies to date. In this paper we proposed an automated approach for reconstructing nine brainstem fiber trajectories of pathways that might be involved in pain modulation. We first performed native-space manual tractography of these fiber tracts in a small normative cohort of participants and confirmed the anatomical precision of the results using existing anatomical literature. Second, region-of-interest pairs were manually defined at each extracted fiber's termini and nonlinearly warped to a standard anatomical brain template to create an atlas of the region-of-interest pairs. The resulting atlas was then transformed non-linearly into the native space of 17 veteran patients' brains for automated brainstem tractography. Lastly, we assessed the relationships between the integrity levels of the obtained fiber bundles and pain severity levels. Fractional anisotropy (FA) measures derived using automated tractography reflected the respective tracts' FA levels obtained via manual tractography. A significant inverse relationship between FA and pain levels was detected within the automatically derived dorsal and medial longitudinal fasciculi of the brainstem. This study demonstrates the feasibility of DTI in exploring brainstem circuitries involved in pain processing. In this context, the described automated approach is a viable alternative to the time-consuming manual tractography. The physiological and functional relevance of the measures derived from automated tractography is evidenced by their relationships with individual pain severities.
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