What B-Value Should Be Used to Resolve Crossing Fibres in the Neonate Brain?

Kerstin Pannek¹, Tracey Bjorkman¹, Paul Colditz¹, Stephen Rose¹

Diffusion MRI and tractography are increasingly popular tools for studying the neonate brain. The ability to resolve crossing fibres is crucial for obtaining accurate tractography results. Several higher order models of diffusion have been proposed to overcome the limitations of the diffusion tensor in this respect. However, higher b-values are typically required in these models. This parameter needs to be optimized for the neonate brain to improve the estimation of fibre orientations from diffusion imaging and increase the accuracy of tractography.