DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging) DTI is a type of MRI that uses the properties of the motion of water to look at tracts in the brain.  White matter in the brain is made up of myelin around neuronal axons (the part of the neuron that sends a connection to other neurons).  These axons go to the other places in the brain or body that those neurons need to communicate with.  DTI uses the properties of water in myelin (and the fact that there will be some directionality) to figure out where the tracts are traveling to and therefore, which areas of brain are talking to each other.  The cool colors in the image indicate the direction the tracts are going (left to right, forward to back, etc.).  This is a coronal slice (bread slice) through the brain, and you can see the red in the middle is the corpus callosum, which connects the two sides of the brain, for instance (so you have information traveling left to right and right to left).  We have used DTI in the study of some psychiatric disorders where communication is disrupted to figure out where and how much. [Image Source]

DTI (Diffusion Tensor Imaging)

DTI is a type of MRI that uses the properties of the motion of water to look at tracts in the brain.  White matter in the brain is made up of myelin around neuronal axons (the part of the neuron that sends a connection to other neurons).  These axons go to the other places in the brain or body that those neurons need to communicate with.  DTI uses the properties of water in myelin (and the fact that there will be some directionality) to figure out where the tracts are traveling to and therefore, which areas of brain are talking to each other.  The cool colors in the image indicate the direction the tracts are going (left to right, forward to back, etc.).  This is a coronal slice (bread slice) through the brain, and you can see the red in the middle is the corpus callosum, which connects the two sides of the brain, for instance (so you have information traveling left to right and right to left).  We have used DTI in the study of some psychiatric disorders where communication is disrupted to figure out where and how much.

[Image Source]