Fiber Continuity: An Anisotropic Prior for ODF Estimation

Marco Reisert¹, Valerij Kiselev¹

The accurate and reliable estimation of fiber orientation distributions based on diffusion-sensitized magnetic resonance images is a major prerequisite for tractography algorithms or any other derived statistical analysis. In this work we formulate the principle of fiber continuity (FC), which is based on the simple observation that the imaging of fibrous tissue implies certain expectations to the measured images. From this principle we derive a prior for the estimation of fiber orientation distributions based on high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI). We demonstrate on simulated, phantom and in vivo data the superiority of the proposed approach.