Water Can Map the Brain

Subtle changes in the brain's white matter occur when diseases begin. By mapping changes, scientists and clinicians can better understand how diseases develop - an important first step to develop new methods of treatment. The problem has been how to map these changes in a living brain.

New Technologies

A new imaging technology, Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DT-MRI), uses water diffusion to map soft tissue. Like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), DT-MRI produces a high quality 3-D image of the brain. It also produces sophisticated images of soft tissues by measuring the three-dimensional random motion of water molecules, or water diffusion, within the tissues.

Water diffuses fastest in the direction in which tissue fibers are pointing and slowest at right angles to tissue fibers. DT-MRI is able to use this information to produce intricate three-dimensional images of the tissue's architectural organization and local structure.

DT-MRI can show how fibers connect different regions of the brain and show how it is "wired," as developer Peter Basser, PhD, refers to it. He developed the system in 1996 and is now Chief of Tissue Biophysics and Biometrics and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

Using DT-MRI, scientists can measure changes in tissue properties--or the wiring--that often correlate with development, degeneration, disease and aging. Cognitive and behavioral disorders, including schizophrenia, ADD, and dyslexia are also related to the brain's anatomy. Using DT-MRI, researchers can identify the anomalies that relate to these different conditions.

DT-MRI is helping to map nerve pathways in the brain, diagnose acute stroke, and determine the effectiveness of new stroke prevention medications. Brain surgeons are starting to use the technology to discern between healthy brain tissue and tumor tissue prior to planning a surgical procedure. Pediatric researchers are able to learn more about normal brain development in infants and children. DT-MRIs may prove very useful in assessing head trauma as well.

By better understanding how the living brain functions, better screening of cognitive disorders, and better understanding of neurological disease can lead to better treatment options.

For more information on this emerging technology, visit http://www.nichd.nih.gov.