Introduction to dMRI: Glossary

dMRI data is represented as a 4-dimensional image (x,y,z,diffusion directional sensitivity)

dMRI data is sensitive to a particular direction of diffusion motion. Due to this sensitivity, each volume of the 4D image is sensitive to a particular direction

Many different preprocessing pipelines, dependent on how data is acquired

Provides an estimation of the local (voxel-wise) underlying fiber orientation

Local fiber orientation reconstruction is the primer to all dMRI derivatives

DTI is one of the simplest and most common models used

Provides information to infer characteristics of axonal fibres

CSD uses the information along more gradient encoding directions

It allows to resolve complex fiber configurations, such as crossings

Provides an estimation of the long range underlying fiber arrangement

Tractography is central to estimate and provide measures of the white matter neuroanatomy

Local tractography uses local orientation information obtained from diffusion MRI data

Tractography requires seeds to begin tracking and a stopping criterion for termination

Deterministic tractography methods perform tracking in a predictable way

Probabilistic tractography incorporates uncertainty to the tracking process

Provides tractograms that explore more white matter axonal fibers