Laterality of cerebellar afferent and efferent pathways in a healthy right‐handed population: A diffusion tensor imaging study

Abstract

The cerebellum communicates with the cerebral cortex through the cortico‐ponto‐cerebellar tract (CPCT, cerebellar afferent) and the dentato‐rubro‐thalamo‐cortical tract (DRTCT, cerebellar efferent). This study explored the laterality of CPCT and DRTCT in a right‐handed population. Forty healthy right‐handed subjects (18 males and 22 females with age range of 26–79 years old) who underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) were retrospectively enrolled. Bilateral CPCT, DRTCT, and the corticospinal tract (CST) were reconstructed using probabilistic diffusion tensor tractography (DTT). Tract volume (TV) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were compared between dominant and non‐dominant tracts. Subjects were divided into age groups (20–40, 41–60, and 61–80 years), and the DTI‐derived parameters of the groups were compared to determine age‐related differences. TV and FA of non‐dominant CPCT were higher than those of dominant CPCT, and the dominant CST was higher than the non‐dominant CST. The TV and FA of DRTCT showed no side‐to‐side difference. The 61–80 years age group had the highest TV of the dominant and non‐dominant DRTCT among the three groups and the highest FA of the non‐dominant CPCT and DRTCT. The results revealed the structural characteristics of CPCT and DRTCT using probabilistic DTT. Normal asymmetric patterns and age‐related changes in cerebellar white matter tracts may be important to researchers investigating cerebro‐cerebellar structural connectivity.

Motor and higher‐order functions topography of the human dentate nuclei identified with tractography and clustering methods

“…Commonly, the DNs are known to be involved in sensorimotor processes but recent functional imaging investigations have revealed that they play a role also in non‐motor functions (Alahmadi et al, 2017 ; Bharti et al, 2020 ; Habas, Guillevin, & Abanou, 2011 ; Zhang et al, 2015 ). This finding is in line with the recent understanding that the cerebellum is connected to cognitive and associative cortical areas, as supported by either tract‐tracing techniques (Kelly & Strick, 2003 ; Middleton & Strick, 1994 ; Schmahmann & Caplan, 2006 ; Schmahmann & Pandya, 1995 ; Strick, Dum, & Fiez, 2009a ) or diffusion MRI tractography studies of the cerebro‐cerebellar loop (Kim, Im, Kim, & Park, 2019 ; Palesi et al, 2015 , 2016 , 2017 ).…”

Alteration of White Matter in Patients with Central Post-Stroke Pain

“…Exclusion criteria were: (1) recurrent stroke; (2) diagnosis of brain complications after stroke, such as hydrocephalus; (3) underlying degenerative brain disease, such as Parkinson’s disease; and (4) other pain syndrome, such as complex regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, or other rheumatologic disease. Normal controls were age- and sex-matched subjects chosen from the data from the Health Promotion Center of our institution [ 18 ].…”

Brainstem Involvement in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Combined Structural and Diffusion Tensor MRI Analysis

“…Further, cortico-ponto-cerebellar system microstructural changes have been related to memory impairment in ALS patients, ( Trojsi et al, 2020 )., Mean FA of the CPT was reduced in ALS patients in a longitudinal multicenter study ( Kalra et al, 2020 ). The CPT is associated with hand dominance-related alterations ( Kim et al, 2019 ). In addition, previous researches have demonstrated that the integrity of the CPT in patients with chronic stroke affects the residual upper limb function ( Schulz et al, 2015 ; Guder et al, 2020 ).…”