Brain Differences Visualized in the Blind using Tensor Manifold Statistics and Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Abstract

[Introduce the problem assuming readers will not have knowledge of it. Why worth doing? Take readers from general to specific using succinct explanation.] Detection of systematic patterns of anatomy in brain imaging has become essential to our understanding of disease effects on brain anatomy and function. Unlike other imaging modalities, noninvasive MRI-based measurement of the local water diffusion tensor (DT) in brain tissue can provide vital information on tissue microstructure and composition. DT images can be analyzed to provide 3D images of mean diffusivity, anisotropy and dominant orientation of water diffusion for each imaged voxel in brain tissue. Some brain regions, such as the cortical and subcortical gray matter and cerebrospinal fluid, have largely isotropic diffusivity, as the diffusion process is not heavily constrained b