Marco Cavalieri1,
Marco Palombo1, 2, Alessandro Gozzi3, Andrea
Gabrielli4, Angelo Bifone3, Silvia Capuani1,
2
1Physics
Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; 2CNR IPCF UOS Roma,
Physics Department, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; 3Istituto
Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Nanotechnology Innovation, IIT@NEST, Pisa,
Italy; 4CNR-ISC Roma, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy
The aim of the study was to overcome the first order approximation in the stretched-exponential &[gamma]-imaging method, to obtain Anomalous Diffusion &[gamma] values in the intrinsic &[gamma] reference frame. To this end, we examined a fixed mouse brain at 7T, by performing conventional DTI and &[gamma]-imaging experiments, and assessing T2*, DTI parameters, DTI main directions, stretched-exponential &[gamma]-imaging parameters, &[gamma]-imaging main directions in various anatomical regions of mouse brain. We show that the &[gamma] reference frame is not coincident with the conventional diffusion reference frame. Moreover, our results suggest that &[gamma]-imaging may provide information on tissue microstructure beyond and above DTI.