Correction Strategy for Infants Diffusion-Weighted Images Corrupted with Motion

Jessica Dubois^1,2, Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz^1,3, Lucie Hertz-Pannier^2,4, Giovanna Santoro¹, Jean-Franois Mangin, ^3,5, Cyril Poupon, ^3,5

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) offers the possibility to study the developing white matter non-invasively. However, diffusion-weighted images obtained in non-sedated infants are often corrupted with motion artifacts. We propose a post-processing methodology which takes advantage of the high diffusion orientation count and corrects these images before the computation of diffusion maps. The strategy relies on three successive steps: two steps of correction of corrupted slices (using decomposition on a spherical harmonics basis), separated by a step of 3D motion registration. This approach was validated on DTI data from 15 infants, by reliably evaluating the corpus callosum maturation with tractography-based quantification.