CLINICAL APPLICATIONS OF ADVANCED DIFFUSION MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING (MRI) METHODS

There has been extensive work in the field of Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI) focussed on developing DWI-based analysis methods that can accurately map the human connectome in vivo. This thesis firstly provides comprehensive evidence to demonstrate that the most widely used DWI-based tractography method provides unreliable and clinically misleading information. Importantly, we also demonstrate the advantage of using advanced DWI-based analysis methods to assess abnormal brain networks. In patients with Periventricular Nodular Heterotopia we demonstrate widespread abnormalities in intrinsic brain networks that may serve as the structural basis for the often serious clinical sequelae commonly associated with neuronal migration disorders.