Brain tissue conductivity reconstruction based on diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging: a simulation study

Magnetic resonance electrical impedance tomography (MREIT) was used to reconstruct the homogeneous conductivity of the brain tissues. RBF ( radius basic function)-MREIT algorithm for homogeneous conductivity reconstruction was extended to reconstruct conductivity of the anisotropic white matter based on the data from diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) , as well as the target conductivity of the isotropic gray matter and CSF according to the practically physical experiment measurement. Numerical simulations were performed on the five-layer realistic head model including the isotropic CSF (cerebrospinal fluid) , gray matter and the anisotropic white matter. Present results showed that the conductivity reconstruction method had higher accuracy and better robustness against noise. The research was used to judge the feasibility, meaningfulness and reliability of the MREIT applied on the electrical impedance tomography of the complicated human head tissues.