High Resolution Imaging of the Brain - Anastasia Yendiki, PhD and Chiara Maffei, PhD

In this episode, we explore the science of diffusion MRI tractography with Dr. Anastasia Yendiki and Dr. Chiara Maffei. They discuss a landmark study that revealed how major brain pathways, long thought to be single unified structures, are actually composed of finer, interleaved connections — a finding that aligns with what neuroanatomists have long suspected but that in vivo imaging couldn't previously resolve. The conversation covers the range of techniques used to get there: ex vivo MRI, optical imaging, tracer studies in macaques, and X-ray microscopy at a European synchrotron. They also break down how this work connects to real clinical applications — from presurgical planning to deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease, OCD, and depression — and how their NIH BRAIN Initiative CONNECTS project is working toward the most detailed map of human brain connectivity ever created.

Dr. Yendiki is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School whose research focuses on developing computational tools for mapping brain circuitry — including TRACULA, a widely used toolbox for diffusion MRI tractography — and on using high-resolution microscopy to build more accurate models of white matter pathways. She also leads the Large-scale Imaging of Neural Circuits (LINC) center, one of five NIH BRAIN Initiative CONNECTS comprehensive centers.

Dr. Maffei is an Instructor in Radiology at Harvard Medical School whose work centers on validating diffusion tractography using high-resolution imaging methods like optical imaging and ex vivo MRI, with a particular focus on improving the reliability of tractography for both clinical and research applications.