DCP: a pipeline toolbox for diffusion connectome

Abstract The brain structure network constructed from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) reflects the anatomical connections between brain regions, so the brain structure network can quantitatively describe the anatomical connectivity pattern of the entire brain. This method has been widely used in scientific research. While many toolboxes facilitating the construction of white matter networks and topological analysis have been developed, fully automated network analysis based on dMRI data in the Windows Operating System remains challenging. Here, we developed a MATLAB toolbox named “Diffusion Connectome Pipeline” (DCP) for fully automated construction of brain structure networks and analyzing networks. The toolbox integrates modules of a few developed packages, including Diffusion Toolkit, DiffusionKit, SPM, CAMINI, and MRIcron. It can process any number of raw dMRI datasets from different subjects in either DICOM or NIfTI format. It is also compatible with processed files from HCP and UK Biobank. Moreover, DCP has a friendly graphical user interface running on the Windows Operating System, which enables users to configure their processing pipeline without any programming. As an open-source package, DCP is freely available on https://www.nitrc.org/projects/dcp and will be regularly updated. This novel toolbox is expected to substantially standardize and facilitate human brain structural connectome studies.