Imaging the Brain's Highways—Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Epilepsy

Abstract

Diffusion tensor imaging evaluates the motion of water at the voxel level and can provide data on the structural integrity of brain tissue, with quantitative measures of diffusion and fractional anisotropy. Imaging of the orientation of preferential diffusion of water in the brain can visualize major white matter pathways and infer the structural basis of cerebral networks. Thus, how these pathways and networks may be altered in specific epilepsy syndromes and in consequence to therapies can be assessed with the aid of these images.