Tracking White Matter Fiber in Human Brain

A new approach for noninvasively tracing brain white matter fiber tracts is presented using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) data. This technique is based on successive anisotropic diffusion simulations over the human brain, which are utilized to construct three dimensional diffusion fronts. The fiber pathways are determined by evaluating the distance and orientation from fronts to their corresponding diffusion seeds. Real DT-MRI data are used to demonstrate the tracking scheme. It is shown that several major white matter fiber pathways can be reproduced noninvasively, with the tract branching being allowed. Since the diffusion simulation,which is a truly physical phenomenon reflecting the underlying architecture of cerebral tissues, makes full use of the entire diffusion tensor data, the proposed approach is expected to enhance robustness and reliability of the DT-MRI based fiber tracking techniques in white matter fiber reconstruction.