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Abstract #1005

The relationship between diffusion MRI-derived axon diameters and conduction velocities in human peripheral nerves

Alexandru V. Avram1, Zhen Ni2, Felipe Vial2, Amber Simmons3, Adam S. Bernstein3,4, Giorgio Leodori5, Sinisa Pajevic6, Richard Coppola7, Mark Hallett2, and Peter J. Basser3

1National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, 2National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, 3National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, 4Biomedical Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, United States, 5Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, 6Center for Information Technology, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, 7National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States

From diffusion-weighted MRIs with large q-values we estimated average axon diameters (AADs) in the median and ulnar nerves of healthy volunteers. We described signals using a tissue model of restricted and hindered diffusion and employed the multiple correlation function framework to account for all gradient pulses. Nerve conduction velocity distributions in the ulnar nerves were measured using electrophysiological techniques. Along these nerves, AADs correlated with average nerve conduction velocities supporting the linear dependence with propagation speed previously reported in the classical literature. This work presents pilot data suggesting the possibility of inferring inter-cortical latencies from whole-brain diffusion MRI.

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