In vivo Quantification of Restriction Sizes in Gray Matter of Rat Brain Using Temporal Diffusion Spectroscopy

The diffusion time (t_diff) dependence of diffusion MRI signals provides a means to characterize tissue microstructure at cellular levels. Several studies have reported the diffusion time dependence of diffusion signals from rodent brains in health and disease, as well as human brains. Here, we apply IMPULSED (Imaging Microstructural Parameters Using Limited Spectrally Edited Diffusion), a temporal diffusion spectroscopy-based method that we have described previously, to map the mean restriction size for water diffusion in gray matter of the rat brain in vivo by fitting the t_diff dependence of diffusion signals to a simple biophysical model.