Imaging the brain microstructure with diffusion-weighted MRI

The brain microstructure is the complex organization of axons, neurons and other cells that support the neural functions. Its mapping at the whole-brain level holds promise to the identification and characterization of neurological and psychiatric disorders as well as the assessment of response to treatment. Diffusion-weighted imaging has been at the forefront of developments of brain microstructure imaging. It is based on the recording of movements of pools of water molecules as they hit the cellular barriers in the brain. In this talk, I will provide a gentle introduction to DWI and microstructure imaging, present some recent developments and outline exciting challenges that the field is currently facing.

Maxime Taquet is a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard Medical School and the University of Louvain and currently studies medicine as a graduate-entry student at the University of Oxford.