Bundle-specific tractogram distribution estimation using higher-order streamline differential equation

Yuanjing Feng, Lei Xie, Jingqiang Wang, Qiyuan Tian, Jianzhong He, Qingrun Zeng, Fei Gao

Abstract: Highlights•A novel BTD function for fiber tractography to directly reconstruct the fiber trajectory is proposed.•A unified framework for any higher-order streamline differential equation is presented to describe the fiber bundles with disjoint streamlines defined based on the diffusion tensor vector field.•The fiber bundles are parameterized using the BTD coefficients, which are estimated by combining the priors and minimizing the energy on the diffusion tensor vector field.•Experimental results on Hough, Sine, Circle, FiberCup, ISMRM 2015 data, and HCP dataset show that the BTD is capable of reconstructing complex fiber bundles with long distances, large twists, and fan-shaped bundles, and shows better spatial consistency with the fiber geometry.