MEDUSA: a GPU-based tool to create realistic phantoms of the brain white matter microstructure using tiny spheres.

This work proposes a novel Microstructure Environment Designer with Unified Sphere Atoms (MEDUSA) to construct realistic white matter cellular phantoms ensuring the absence of overlapping cells. It relies on a CUDA-based collision solver that enables to reach high values of packing density and angular dispersion, even in the case of multiple fiber populations. MEDUSA thus achieves the fast construction of biomimicking white matter phantoms with fully controlled geometrical properties, including axons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes.