Visualization of the Orientational Structure of the Human Stria of Gennari with High-Resolution DWI

Christoph Wolfram Ulrich Leuze¹, Bibek Dhital¹, Alfred Anwander¹, Andre Pampel¹, Robin Heidemann¹, Stefan Geyer¹, Marcel Gratz², Robert Turner¹

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) at high spatial and angular resolution was performed at 9.4T on a block of fixed human cadaver brain tissue containing visual cortex. Analysis of the principal eigenvector orientations allowed visualization of several layers within the primary visual cortex V1. No clearly preferred diffusion direction could be measured inside the stria of Gennari (SoG), consistent with its high content of transverse myelinated intracortical axons. In surrounding layers the orientational structure was predominantly radial. The low orientational anisotropy of the SoG terminates at the V1/V2 boundary, allowing easy visualization of this boundary using diffusion data alone.