By Darold Treffert, MD

Doctor Thomas Conturo, of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has developed a technique for what is called "fiber tracking" within the brain. Using Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans which measure random movements of water inside and outside nerve cells, actual nerve fiber bundles can be individually identified and visualized, and how they make specific connections between particular areas of the brain. While PET scans can measure activity between corresponding areas of the brain when certain tasks are performed, and from that activity certain assumptions can be made about connections between brain areas, fiber tracking provides detailed maps of the actual connections — the specific 'wiring' — of the brain and its interconnections via these fibers. (see Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 31, 1999 "Tracking neuronal fiber pathways in the living human brain").

Such fiber tracking will have considerable usefulness in studying the 'wiring' of a number of brain disorders such as Alzheimer's, Schizophrenia and a number of other neurologic disorders, which can lead to better understanding of the neuropathology involved and perhaps some better remedial methods in those disorders, including the post-stroke 're-wiring' often commented upon. But such fiber tracking would seem to be a useful technique as well to apply to better understanding savant syndrome and the underlying circuitry involved. MRI is less invasive that PET scanning, and such fiber tracking using MRI seems like a natural extension of savant research, particularly with some of the left hemisphere/right hemisphere and corpus callosum findings elaborated upon elsewhere on this site.


For more information, please contact:
Darold A. Treffert, MD
St. Agnes Hospital, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry
University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison
Personal Web site: http://www.daroldtreffert.com
e-mail: savants@charter.net