Imaging cellular-level brain microstructure with diffusion MRI
Abstract
Noninvasive live-cell imaging in deep human tissues is crucial for exploring the cellular biological and pathogenic processes, but remains a significant unmet challenge. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) promises to narrow this gap by noninvasively providing cellular-level microstructural information. Within a single crowded voxel containing millions of living cells, the intricate cellular-level microstructures create numerous microcompartments, each characterized by a specific diffusivity. However, conventional dMRI methods relying on voxel-averaged macroscopic parameters, merely reflect aggregate microstructural properties and fail to quantify this distribution of microcompartment-specific diffusivity within a voxel, thereby obscuring microstructural details. Here, we propose an intravoxel diffusivity probability distribution (IDPD) model to resolve a wealth of essential microstructural information via quantifying microcompartment-specific diffusivity distribution, thereby enabling direct cellular-level characterization. This exceptional capability is realized through a multi-tiered analytical workflow spanning targeted single-voxel or region of interest (ROI) analysis to global visualization using dynamic videos and statistic parametric maps. Ultimately, the IDPD model enables noninvasive cellular-level microstructure imaging, offering a promising avenue to evaluate living cell functions in vivo.
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BibTeX
@misc{li2026imaging,
title = {{Imaging cellular-level brain microstructure with diffusion MRI}},
author = {Xiaodong Li and Jing Zhao and Baolan Lu and Jinzhu Wang and Xinhua Wei and Qingxian Yang and Xuegang Xin},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = aug,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.30430},
eprint = {2608.30430},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.30430},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Imaging cellular-level brain microstructure with diffusion MRI
AU - Xiaodong Li
AU - Jing Zhao
AU - Baolan Lu
AU - Jinzhu Wang
AU - Xinhua Wei
AU - Qingxian Yang
AU - Xuegang Xin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/08/31
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.30430
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.30430
AB - Noninvasive live-cell imaging in deep human tissues is crucial for exploring the cellular biological and pathogenic processes, but remains a significant unmet challenge. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) promises to narrow this gap by noninvasively providing cellular-level microstructural information. Within a single crowded voxel containing millions of living cells, the intricate cellular-level microstructures create numerous microcompartments, each characterized by a specific diffusivity. However, conventional dMRI methods relying on voxel-averaged macroscopic parameters, merely reflect aggregate microstructural properties and fail to quantify this distribution of microcompartment-specific diffusivity within a voxel, thereby obscuring microstructural details. Here, we propose an intravoxel diffusivity probability distribution (IDPD) model to resolve a wealth of essential microstructural information via quantifying microcompartment-specific diffusivity distribution, thereby enabling direct cellular-level characterization. This exceptional capability is realized through a multi-tiered analytical workflow spanning targeted single-voxel or region of interest (ROI) analysis to global visualization using dynamic videos and statistic parametric maps. Ultimately, the IDPD model enables noninvasive cellular-level microstructure imaging, offering a promising avenue to evaluate living cell functions in vivo.
ER -