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Robust thalamic nuclei segmentation using spectral clustering of fiber orientation distributions

Das, Debottama
Iglehart, Charles
Bilgin, Ali
Saranathan, Manojkumar
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UMass Chan Affiliations
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Journal Article
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2026-03-25
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Abstract

The thalamus comprises multiple nuclei that support higher-order cognitive functions. However, its internal architecture remains difficult to delineate using conventional T1- or T2-weighted MRI because of limited tissue contrast. Diffusion-weighted MRI provides richer microstructural detail, yet accurate segmentation is still challenged by low anisotropy and tissue heterogeneity. To address these challenges, we present a modified spectral clustering framework for thalamic segmentation. Our approach jointly leverages voxel-wise information and fiber orientation distribution (FOD) features derived from multi-shell multi-tissue constrained spherical deconvolution. When evaluated using spatial probabilistic maps that capture across-subject spatial variability in labels, k-means and spectral clustering exhibit broadly similar group-level variability patterns. However, the spectral clustering framework accommodates smaller thalamic subdivisions, including the lateral and medial geniculate nuclei (LGN and MGN), which required exclusion from the k-means configuration for stable parcellation. Under these conditions, spectral clustering achieved Dice scores of 0.73 for the mediodorsal-parafascicular (MD-Pf) complex and 0.51 for the ventral posterolateral (VPL) nucleus and produce a cluster corresponding to LGN. Furthermore, by combining structural and diffusion information, our approach enabled subdivision of the pulvinar into four distinct regions. These result position our modified spectral clustering as a robust and anatomically informed tool for thalamic clustering and pulvinar sub-segmentation.

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Das D, Iglehart C, Bilgin A, Saranathan M. Robust thalamic nuclei segmentation using spectral clustering of fiber orientation distributions. PLoS One. 2026 Mar 25;21(3):e0345649. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0345649. PMID: 41880350; PMCID: PMC13016311.

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10.1371/journal.pone.0345649
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41880350
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Copyright: © 2026 Das et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.