Somatotopic location of corticospinal tracts in the internal capsule with MR tractography.

ABSTRACT

We demonstrated the exact location of the somatotopic area of the corticospinal tract in the internal capsule. Ten healthy subjects participated in this study. We used the imaging technique that combines functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor tractography. In order to reduce erroneous elements while image processing, we used the probabilistic tracking algorithm and brain normalization method. Our results showed that hand fibers were located anteromedial to foot fibers, and the separation angle between them was 45.00-78.69°. In conclusion, we confirmed the relative location of hand and foot fibers and the separation angle in the internal capsule. These data are useful information for neuroscience researchers.