Abstract
The purpose of this study is to show the methodology for the examination of the white matter connections of the supplementary motor area (SMA) complex (pre-SMA and SMA proper) using a combination of fiber dissection techniques on cadaveric specimens and magnetic resonance (MR) tractography. The protocol will also describe the procedure for a white matter dissection of a human brain, diffusion tensor tractography imaging, and three-dimensional documentation. The fiber dissections on human brains and the 3D documentation were performed at the University of Minnesota, Microsurgery and Neuroanatomy Laboratory, Department of Neurosurgery. Five postmortem human brain specimens and two whole heads were prepared in accordance with Klingler's method. Brain hemispheres were dissected step by step from lateral to medial and medial to lateral under an operating microscope, and 3D images were captured at every stage. All dissection results were supported by diffusion tensor imaging. Investigations on the connections in line with Meynert's fiber tract classification, including association fibers (short, superior longitudinal fasciculus I and frontal aslant tracts), projection fibers (corticospinal, claustrocortical, cingulum, and frontostriatal tracts), and commissural fibers (callosal fibers) were also conducted.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | e55681 |
Journal | Journal of Visualized Experiments |
Volume | 2017 |
Issue number | 123 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 23 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The data were provided in part by the Human Connectome Project, WU-Minn Consortium (Principal Investigators: David Van Essen and Kamil Ugurbil; 1U54MH091657), funded by the 16 NIH Institutes and Centers that support the NIH Blueprint for Neuroscience Research; and by the McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience at Washington University. Figures 2A and 2D were reproduced with permission from the Rhoton collection57 (http://rhoton.ineurodb.org/?page=21899).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Journal of Visualized Experiments.
Keywords
- Association fibers
- Commissural fibers
- Diffusion tensor tractography
- Fiber dissection
- Issue 123
- Neuroscience
- Projection fibers
- Supplementary motor area
- Three-dimensional documentation
- White matter pathways