Towards interactive exploration of DTI data

Fiber tracking is a powerful technique to analyze Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) data of the brain. It allows tracing paths through the dataset that relate to the primary pathways of white matter axonal structures. The typical approach to do this is to place a region-of-interest (ROI) inside the dataset, and subsequently visualize all paths running through the ROI. Consequently, the resulting fiber structure is highly sensitive to the location and shape of the chosen ROI. Small variations of the ROI can sometimes lead to drastic changes in the resulting fiber tract. To address this problem, we present a novel approach to interact with DTI data, which allows for an explorative analysis of this highly complex data. It is based on a combination of real-time fiber tracking with an interactive method to generate anatomically meaningful ROIs. ROIs are created and modified interactively in both shape and size, while the effects of these modifications to the resulting fiber tracts are visualized on-the-fly.