Mapping the white matter fiber connections in the brain using diffusion-weighted MRI.

Diffusion Weighted (DW) MRI is a unique and noninvasive method to characterise tissue microstructure, based on the random thermal motion of water molecules. Of particular interest is its potential for inferring the orientation of the coherently oriented fiber bundles within brain white matter tissue, as this opens up the possibility of investigating brain connectivity in vivo using so-called fiber-tracking algorithms. This relatively new technique is becoming a valuable diagnostic tool for a large number of neuropathological diseases.The main goals of this research topic are:- to use clinically relevant acquisitions (< 15 minutes)- to estimate fiber orientations in each voxel as accurate as possible- to assess global brain connectivity by means of tractography

Keywords:IMAGING, MRI

Disciplines:Multimedia processing, Biological system engineering, Signal processing