Study of Nerve Fiber Tracking Methodologies using Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

Neural connectivity studies are extremely important for interpreting functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) data and brain in vivo studies. By assuming that the largest principal axis of the diffusion tensor aligns with the predominant fiber orientation in an MRI voxel, we can obtain 2D or 3D vector fields that represent the fiber orientation at each voxel. An algorithm was developed for tracking brain white matter fibers using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI), which is the only approach now to non-invasively study the architecture of white matter tracts.