Estimation of individual axon bundle properties by a Multi-Resolution Discrete-Search method

Diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an imaging modality which is sensitive to the microscopic Brownian motion of water molecules (i.e. diffusion). Water diffusion in living tissues is affected by their cellular organization. In particular, in the brain white matter (WM), the coherent organization in packed bundles of the neuronal tissue introduces a directional dependence to the microscopic random movements  (Beaulieu, 2002). Therefore, by measuring water molecular displacements using diffusion MRI, it is possible to infer properties of the local tissue micro-structure and the architecture of the neuronal connections in-vivo and in a non-invasive way.
Source: Medical Image Analysis - Category: Radiology Authors: Source Type: research