Various metrics for comparing diffusion tensors have been recently proposed
in the literature. We consider a broad family of metrics which is indexed by a
single power parameter. A likelihood-based procedure is developed for choosing
the most appropriate metric from the family for a given dataset at hand. The
approach is analogous to using the Box-Cox transformation that is frequently
investigated in regression analysis. The methodology is illustrated with a
simulation study and an application to a real dataset of diffusion tensor
images of canine hearts