Parcellation of the thalamus by using a dual-segment method based on resting-state functional connectivity: An application on autism spectrum disorder

Background: Evidence suggests thalamus is a key information relay center and all cortical areas receive inputs from the thalamus and each of the main nuclei of thalamus connects a single one or a few cortical areas. The traditional winner-takes-all thalamus parcellation method was then proposed based on this assumption. However, this method is based on the structural segments of the cortex which is not suitable for the functional parcellation of the thalamus. Method: Here we proposed a dual-segment method for thalamus functional parcellation based on the resting-state fMRI data. The traditional winner-takes-all and the proposed dual-segment methods were both applied to the dataset of 76 healthy controls (HCs) and 34 subjects with autism spectrum disorder. Results: The results showed that the thalamus was subdivided into two sub-regions by using the dual-segment method: one is located in the dorsomedial part of thalamus which connects the high-level cognitive cortical regions; the other is located in the ventrolateral part of thalamus which connects the low-level sensory cortical areas. The functional connectivity strength between thalamus sub-regions and the corresponding cortical regions based on the dual-segment method was higher than that of results from the traditional winner-takes-all method. The thalamo-cortical functional connectivity based on our proposed method also showed higher classification ability to distinguish subjects with autism spectrum disorder from HCs. Conclusion: Our study will provide a new method for functional thalamus parcellation which might help understand the sub-regions functions of thalamus in neuroscience studies.

Automated summary

This study proposed a dual-segment method for thalamus functional parcellation based on resting-state fMRI data, which subdivided the thalamus into two sub-regions connecting high-level cognitive cortical regions and low-level sensory cortical areas. The functional connectivity strength between thalamus sub-regions and the corresponding cortical regions using the dual-segment method was higher and showed better classification ability for distinguishing subjects with autism spectrum disorder from healthy controls compared to the traditional winner-takes-all method. This new method offers insights into the functions of thalamus sub-regions in neuroscience studies.