Large-Scale High-Resolution Probabilistic Maps of the Human Superior Longitudinal Fasciculus Subdivisions and their Cortical Terminations.

Abstract

The superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) is the large white matter association tract connecting the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Past studies in non-human primates have parcellated the SLF into three subdivisions and have outlined the specific cortico-cortical organization and terminations for each subdivision. However, it is difficult to characterize these structural connections in humans to the specificity of tract-tracing studies in animals. This has led to disagreement on how the SLF subdivisions are organized in the human brain, including if the dorsomedial SLF (SLF-I) is part of the cingulum subsystem. Here, we present a novel large-scale, probabilistic map of the SLF subdivisions, using high-resolution diffusion imaging data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP). We used image data from 302 adult males and 405 adult females to model the three SLF subdivisions in each hemisphere, and attempted to characterize the frontal and parietal termination points for each subdivision. SLF subdivisions were successfully modeled in each subject, showing the dorsomedial-to-ventrolateral organization similar to that in nonhuman primate histological studies. We also found minimal differences between SLF-I models with and without the cingulate gyrus excluded, suggesting that the SLF-I may be a separable tract from the cingulum. Lastly, the SLF subdivisions showed differentiable associations with major cognitive domains such as memory and executive functions. While histological confirmation is needed beyond tractography, these probabilistic masks offer a first step in guiding future exploration of frontoparietal organization by providing detailed characterization of the SLF subdivisions and their potential cortical terminations.Significance statement The prefrontal and posterior parietal areas are interconnected via the SLF, which has been characterized in great detail in monkeys. However, it is difficult to map the SLF organization in the human brain, and previous diffusion MRI findings have been inconsistent. Using diffusion MRI data from 707 individuals, our probabilistic tractography revealed dorsomedial-to-ventrolateral organization of the three SLF subdivisions and their cortical terminations. Our tractography also suggests limited shared volume between the SLF-I and the cingulum, a controversy in recent literature. The SLF subdivisions also differ in their cognitive associations. As a result, we created a large-scale, high-resolution probabilistic parcellation of the SLF, representing an advancement toward standardizing the mapping of human frontoparietal structural connections for clinical and scientific research.