AAN Medical Student Research Scholarship.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has provided neuroscientists with unprecedented access to the structural anatomy of white matter (WM) tracts in vivo (1-7). DTI has strengthened our understanding that higher cognitive functions are determined by interconnected networks of brain fibers, rather than localized regions (5, 7-11). However, the relationship between structural anatomy and behavior is not well-understood, especially in patients with brain tumors (8, 10). Infiltrative gliomas are associated with disruption of WM tracts and impairments in multiple cognitive domains (3, 8, 10, 12-14). Thus, they provide a unique opportunity to strengthen our understanding of which WM pathways are critical to certain functions. In the proposed study, we utilize a cohort of patients with intrinsic brain tumors with differential injury to WM tracts to examine the impact of the major WM pathways in the human brain on cognitive function. This dataset could help optimize surgical and rehabilitation strategies in patients with brain tumors, improving their quality of life. Additionally, it could provide valuable information for neuroscientists to better understand normal mechanisms of functional organization in the human brain as well as principles of neural plasticity.