Conductivity tensor imaging of the brain using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

Conductivity tensor images of the rat brain were obtained by a method based on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Diffusion-weighted images were acquired by a 4.7 T MRI system with motion probing gradients (MPGs) applied in three directions. Conductivities in each MPG direction were calculated from the fast component of the apparent diffusion coefficient and the fraction of the fast component, and two-dimensional conductivity tensor was estimated. Regions of interest (ROIs) were selected in the cortex and the corpus callosum. The mean conductivities in each ROI were 0.014 S/m and 0.018 S/m, respectively. The corpus callosum exhibited higher conductivity anisotropy resulting from anisotropic tissue structures such as axons and dendrites. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.