Efficient parametric encoding scheme for white matter fiber bundles

We present a novel parametric encoding scheme for efficiently recording white matter fiber bundle information obtained from diffusion tensor imaging. The coordinates of fiber tracts are parameterized using a cosine series expansion. For an arbitrary tract, a 19 degree expansion is found to be sufficient to reconstruct the tract with an average error of about 0.26 mm. Then each tract is fully parameterized with 60 parameters, which results in a substantial data reduction. Unlike traditional splines, the proposed method does not have internal knots and explicitly represents the tract as a linear combination of basis functions. This simplicity in the representation enables us to design statistical models, register tracts and perform subsequent analysis in a more streamlined mathematical framework. As an illustration, we apply the proposed method in characterizing abnormal tracts that pass through the splenium of the corpus callosum in autistic subjects.