High-Resolution Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of the Orientational Structure of Motor and Somatosensory Cortex in Human Cadaver Brain

Christoph Wolfram Ulrich Leuze¹, Alfred Anwander¹, Stefan Geyer¹, Pierre-Louis Bazin¹, Robert Turner¹

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) at high spatial and angular resolution was performed at 9.4 T on a block of fixed human cadaver brain tissue containing part of the motor-(M1) and somatosensory (S1) cortex. Analysis of the radiality of the diffusion showed that, unlike stated in earlier studies, the prevalent diffusion direction in S1 is not entirely tangential but rather that neighbouring layers with alternating tangential and radial diffusion properties in both M1 and S1 exist. High DWI spatial resolution is therefore clearly of great importance for correct conclusions regarding cortical orientational structure in the cortex.