This workshop will convene advanced researchers from four communities to discuss methods and uses for measuring and modeling white matter tracts in the human brain. The goal is to integrate those maps into the widely used functional imaging maps based on regional cerebral blood flow in gray matter brain areas. In particular, the workshop will assemble leading researchers in cognitive neuroscience, clinical neuroscience, MR-Diffusion Tensor Imaging, and algorithm development. The workshop has four specific goals: (1) Explore the most advanced uses of diffusion tensor-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) for modeling white matter neural connectivity and tractography, and to assess its validity compared to other methods. (2) Discuss methods for integrating models of white matter into cognitive and clinical neuroscience data and models, comparing DTI to other methods. (3) Discuss how to promote new advances in DTI techniques for applications relevant to cognitive and clinical neuroscience. (4) Discuss how to implement new advances in DTI in readily accessible software that can be distributed to the cognitive and clinical neuroscience communities. The workshop will involve very short presentations by experts, panel discussions, and focused small group discussion. In attendance will be 3 -5 postdoctoral fellows from each community. The workshop will be held in New York City, and will be one and a half days in duration.
The intellectual merit of the workshop is the facilitation of inter-disciplinary approaches to the refinement of emerging MR diffusion tensor imaging techniques specifically for the purposes of analyzing white matter networks non-invasively. The incorporation of white matter maps into cognitive and clinical neuroscience research and theory is expected to have pervasive impact.
The broader impacts of the workshop include the following. Leaders and very junior researchers in at least four separate research communities will focus intensely on exchanging views and educating each other to the scientific, technical, and software aspects of DTI, as compared with other measures of white matter connectivity. In addition to such cross training and advanced education, it is expected that collaborations will develop out of the interactions in this workshop, enhancing the capacity for greater applications, developments, and impact of DTI. Moreover, although this conference is small in size, it will be used as a seed for symposia and panels at annual meetings of the constituent professional societies for these involved researchers.
