Resolution-Dependent Differences in Fiber Tracking and Quantification of the Visual Pathways

Jan Klein¹, Peter Erhard², Horst Karl Hahn¹

Fiber tracking and quantification of the visual pathways is still a challenging problem due distortions in the vicinity of the optic nerve, the small diameter of the bundle itself, crossing fibers in the optic chiasm and the capsula interna, the high curvature in the Meyers loop, and the discontinuity in the corpus geniculatum laterale. We examine how changes in the resolution of the DTI data sets influence the fiber tracking and quantification of the visual pathways, and show that an anisotropic resolution with a high coronal in-plane resolution should be preferred to an isotropic resolution with the same volume per voxel.