Abstract #0846

Characterizing the fine microstructure of cerebellar and cerebral cortex non-invasively with metabolite diffusion-weighted MRS

Marco Palombo¹, Cecile Gallea^2,3, Guglielmo Genovese^3,4, Stephane Lehericy^2,3, and Francesca Branzoli^3,4

¹Centre for Medical Image Computing, Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Team "Movement Investigations and Therapeutics", Brain and Spine Institute - ICM, Paris, France, ³INSERM U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne University, Paris, France, ⁴Brain and Spine Institute - ICM, Centre for NeuroImaging Research - CENIR, Paris, France

Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy (DW-MRS) performed at ultra-high b-values enables the quantification of fine cell microstructural features such as dendritic spine density. Here, we measured in-vivo the diffusion of total N-acetyl-aspartate (tNAA) and choline compounds (tCho) in the human cerebellar and cerebral cortex at 3 T, up to a b-value of 24 ms/μm². We used biophysical modelling and numerical simulations to interpret the metabolite signal attenuation with the b-value. The diffusion of tNAA, a mostly neuronal metabolite, is compatible with a larger presence of spines and highly restricting granular cell soma in cerebellar compared to cerebral cortex.

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