White matter dissection and structural connectivity of the human vertical occipital fasciculus to link vision-associated brain cortex

Abstract

The vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF) is an association fiber tract coursing vertically at the posterolateral corner of the brain. It is re-evaluated as a major fiber tract to link the dorsal and ventral visual stream. Although previous tractography studies showed the VOF’s cortical projections fall in the dorsal and ventral visual areas, the post-mortem dissection study for the validation remains limited. First, to validate the previous tractography data, we here performed the white matter dissection in post-mortem brains and demonstrated the VOF’s fiber bundles coursing between the V3A/B areas and the posterior fusiform gyrus. Secondly, we analyzed the VOF’s structural connectivity with diffusion tractography to link vision-associated cortical areas of the HCP MMP1.0 atlas, an updated map of the human cerebral cortex. Based on the criteria the VOF courses laterally to the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and craniocaudally at the posterolateral corner of the brain, we reconstructed the VOF’s fiber tracts and found the widespread projections to the visual cortex. These findings could suggest a crucial role of VOF in integrating visual information to link the broad visual cortex as well as in connecting the dual visual stream.