Abstract
This review discusses ex vivo diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) as an important research tool for neuroanatomical investigations and the validation of in vivo dMRI techniques, with a focus on the human brain. We review the challenges posed by the properties of post‐mortem tissue, and discuss state‐of‐the‐art tissue preparation methods and recent advances in pulse sequences and acquisition techniques to tackle these. We then review recent ex vivo dMRI studies of the human brain, highlighting the validation of white matter orientation estimates and the atlasing and mapping of large subcortical structures. We also give particular emphasis to the delineation of layered gray matter structure with ex vivo dMRI, as this application illustrates the strength of its mesoscale resolution over large fields of view. We end with a discussion and outlook on future and potential directions of the field.
Highlights
Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging can be used to non‐invasively probe the connectivity and microstructure of human brain tissue in vivo
The results suggest that there is an aberrant connection between the dentate gyrus and the stratum moleculare of the hippocampus, supporting the hypothesis of mossy fiber sprouting in the dentate gyrus as a reverberant excitatory network in mesial temporal lobe epilepsy
The sophistication of specific tissue preparation techniques and pulse sequences has increased to a level at which ex vivo Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) has quickly become an important tool in brain anatomy studies with mesoscopic spatial resolution
Summary
Ex vivo diffusion MRI of the human brain: Technical challenges and recent advances. This review discusses ex vivo diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) as an important research tool for neuroanatomical investigations and the validation of in vivo dMRI techniques, with a focus on the human brain. We review the challenges posed by the properties of post‐mortem tissue, and discuss state‐of‐the‐art tissue preparation methods and recent advances in pulse sequences and acquisition techniques to tackle these. We review recent ex vivo dMRI studies of the human brain, highlighting the validation of white matter orientation estimates and the atlasing and mapping of large subcortical structures. We give particular emphasis to the delineation of layered gray matter structure with ex vivo dMRI, as this application illustrates the strength of its mesoscale resolution over large fields of view. KEYWORDS cortical layers, diffusion MRI, ex vivo, gray matter, validation, white matter
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