Weekend Educational Course: Crossing Fibers in Diffusion MRI Organizers: Fernando Calamante, Ph.D., and Derek K Jones, Ph.D.   Skill Level: Advanced   Saturday, 18 April 2009 08:30 - 12:30 OVERVIEW Despite its widespread popularity and relative ease of interpretation and implementation, diffusion tensor imaging has some limitations – particularly in image voxels containing more than one dominant fiber orientation. The overall goal of this half day course is to enable someone with basic familiarity with diffusion imaging to become familiar with the limitations of DTI – and approaches to improve to resolve crossing fibers and thus characterize tissue microstructure more completely. The speakers are mostly basic scientists who are developing new methods to identify and resolve crossing fibers, and will cover basic neuroanatomy, theory of diffusion, data acquisition, choice of analysis method, validation and the application of such approaches, before considering limitations and areas for future research. There will be formal presentations, as well as opportunities for attendees to speak with the presenters and seek clarification on any point they wish.   EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES      Upon completion of this case based session, participants should be able to: Recognize the basic neuroanotomical characteristics that influence diffusion MRI measurements; Identify alternative models to the diffusion tensor that are able to resolve crossing fibers; Design a suitable diffusion MRI protocol capable of resolving crossing fibers; Describe the advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches used for validation of the diffusion MRI methods to resolve crossing fibers; Explain the potential errors that can occurred in fiber-tracking algorithms that do not account for multiple fibers within a voxel; and Define the outstanding issues of the diffusion MRI methods to resolve crossing fibers.   Saturday, 18 April 2009       08:30 White Matter – Microstructure, Macrostructure, Pathways and Networks Patric Hagmann, M.D., Ph.D. 09:00 Diffusion as a Probe of Tissue Microstructure and Complexity Jacques-Donald Tournier, Ph.D. 09:40 Crossing Fibres- The Methods (How to Tell How Much is Going Where) Daniel Alexander, Ph.D. 10:15 Break - Meet the Teachers         10:45 How to Do It In Practice – Optimal Approaches to Resolving Fiber Crossings Adam W. Anderson, Ph.D. 11:15 Validation of Crossing Fibers Tim B. Dyrby, Ph.D. 11:45 Applications / Limitations Jennifer Campbell, Ph.D. 12:15 Panel Discussion   12:30 Adjournment - Meet the Teachers