A novel in silico phantom for microstructure, tractography and quantitative connectivity estimation

In this work, we propose a novel phantom obtained from Monte-Carlo simulations of spins dynamics to improve testing and validation of DW-MRI quantitative structural connectivity. The DiSCo (Diffusion-Simulated Connectivity) phantom is composed of 16 regions of interest placed on a sphere of 1 millimeter in diameter, interconnected by 12,196 axon-like tubular fibers ranging from 1.4um to 4.2um in diameter.

Its associated connectivity matrix is weighted by their cross-sectional areas. This in silico phantom, with both microscopic and macroscopic complexity, aims at improving the development and the validation of white matter connectivity estimation methods.