Cognitive and White-Matter Compartment Models Reveal Selective Relations between Corticospinal Tract Microstructure and Simple Reaction Time

The speed of motor reaction to an external stimulus varies substantially between individuals and is slowed in aging. However, the neuroanatomical origins of interindividual variability in reaction time (RT) remain unclear. Here, we combined a cognitive model of RT and a biophysical compartment model of diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) to characterize the relationship between RT and microstructure of the corticospinal tract (CST) and the optic radiation (OR), the primary motor output and visual input pathways associated with visual-motor responses. We fitted an accumulator model of RT to 46 female human participants' behavioral performance in a simple reaction time task. The non-decision time parameter (T(er)) derived from the model was used to account for the latencies of stimulus encoding and action initiation. From multi-shell DWI data, we quantified tissue microstructure of the CST and OR with the neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) model as well as the conventional diffusion tensor imaging model. Using novel skeletonization and segmentation approaches, we showed that DWI-based microstructure metrics varied substantially along CST and OR. The T(er) of individual participants was negatively correlated with the NODDI measure of the neurite density in the bilateral superior CST. Further, we found no significant correlation between the microstructural measures and mean RT. Thus, our findings suggest a link between interindividual differences in sensorimotor speed and selective microstructural properties in white-matter tracts. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT How does our brain structure contribute to our speed to react? Here, we provided anatomically specific evidence that interindividual differences in response speed is associated with white-matter microstructure. Using a cognitive model of reaction time (RT), we estimated the non-decision time, as an index of the latencies of stimulus encoding and action initiation, during a simple reaction time task. Using an advanced microstructural model for diffusion MRI, we estimated the tissue properties and their variations along the corticospinal tract and optic radiation. We found significant location-specific correlations between the microstructural measures and the model-derived parameter of non-decision time but not mean RT. These results highlight the neuroanatomical signature of interindividual variability in response speed along the sensorimotor pathways.