Supervisor: Sune Jespersen

Understanding the brain’s microstructure is essential for advancing both neuroscience and clinical diagnostics. Structures like axons, dendrites, and neurites play a central role in brain function and pathology, yet traditionally they could only be studied through invasive histology. Diffusion MRI (dMRI) offers a non-invasive alternative by probing the microscopic architecture of tissue via the motion of water molecules. 

In this presentation, I will introduce the basic physics of diffusion, explain how MRI can be sensitized to measure it, and explore how different modeling strategies, from simple tensor approaches to more detailed multi-compartment models, enable us to infer biologically meaningful parameters. I will also highlight the scientific and clinical applications of dMRI, as well as key limitations.