A Tractography Analysis Framework Using Diffusion Maps to Study Thalamic Connectivity in Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) disrupts thalamocortical connectivity, contributing to cognitive impairment and post-traumatic epilepsy (PTE). This study presents a novel tractography-based framework that leverages diffusion maps to capture microstructural and organizational changes in thalamic white matter pathways. By analyzing individual streamline characteristics, we identified significant associations between diffusion map embeddings and functional outcomes (GOSE scores), highlighting potential biomarkers for injury severity and recovery trajectories. Our findings suggest that fine-grained geometric features of white matter tracts may provide a more sensitive marker for TBI-related alterations.