Many existing algorithms for estimation of the fiber orientation distribution function (ODF) inherently assume Gaussian noise distribution. Against this assumption, the non-central chi noise distribution of diffusion signals causes bias in fiber ODF estimation. In this work, we introduce a means of transforming the diffusion-weighted signals to have a Gaussian noise distribution with the help of the recently introduced x-q space non-local means (XQ-NLM) algorithm. We show that this signal mapping improves estimation of fiber ODFs.
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