DOI: 10.7910/dvn/xwkcie
title: Diffusion Atlas

description: # Fetal Diffusion Atlas&lt;br&gt;
Fetal diffusion atlas (reference below) with added tissue segmentations and regional parcellations.&lt;br&gt;

## Contents&lt;br&gt;
This dataset contains diffusion atlas images for gestational age weeks 23 through 38.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
The diffusion atlas reconstructions were computed in separate coordinates as compared to the CRL2025 T2 atlas. These files are referred to as "DWI-space". To bring the two atlases in alignment we matched image direction header information of the DWI images to the T2 atlas, computed 3 degree-of-freedom translational shifts to overlay with the T2 atlas, and then manually edited the image headers to move the diffusion images into the correct space.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
The base diffusion atlas images are an improved version of the original DWI atlas (Khan et al. 2019) using the same set of subject tensor images.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;

Tissue and regional segmentations were fitted to diffusion atlases using diffeomorphic registration of T2 atlas images to the diffusion atlas, and then modified by hand for research purposes and have been made available here. Segmentations for GA weeks 23-35 were previously available and carefully edited. For this release, automatically propagated segmentations for weeks 36-38 were added but have low quality.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;

File suffixes:&lt;br&gt;
_tensor - Reconstructed tensor image&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
Diffusion scalar images derived from tensor:&lt;br&gt;
 _fa - Franctional anisotropy&lt;br&gt;
 _cfa - Color FA&lt;br&gt;
 _md - Mean diffusivity&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;
_tissue - Tissue segmentation&lt;br&gt;
_region - Regional segmentation&lt;br&gt;

DWIAtlas_labelkey.txt - ITK-SNAP label key for Tissue and Regional segmentations&lt;br&gt;

## License/Data Use Agreement
These files are published under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
&lt;br&gt;

Files in this data release were developed for research purposes and are not intended for medical or diagnostic use and have no warranty. The authors and distributors do not make any guarantees regarding the accuracy or usefulness of results generated from these tools or their derivatives, and are not liable for any damages resulting from their use.&lt;br&gt;&lt;br&gt;

Through this data use agreement, you agree to cite the DOI referring to this resource as well as the following work:&lt;br&gt;
Bagheri, M., Velasco-Annis, C., Wang, J., Faghihpirayesh, R., Khan, S., Calixto, C., Jaimes, C., Vasung, L., Ouaalam, A., Afacan, O., Warfield, S.K., 2025, Rollins, C.K., and Gholipour A. An MRI Atlas of the Human Fetal Brain: Reference and Segmentation Tools for Fetal Brain MRI Analysis. arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.15034. &lt;br&gt;
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Khan, S., Vasung, L., Marami, B., Rollins, C.K., Afacan, O., Ortinau, C.M., Yang, E., Warfield, S.K. and Gholipour, A., 2019. Fetal brain growth portrayed by a spatiotemporal diffusion tensor MRI atlas computed from in utero images. Neuroimage, 185, pp.593-608.&lt;br&gt;
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Khan, S., Rollins, C.K., Ortinau, C.M., Afacan, O., Warfield, S.K. and Gholipour, A., 2018. Tract-specific group analysis in fetal cohorts using in utero diffusion tensor imaging. In Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention–MICCAI 2018: 21st International Conference, Granada, Spain, September 16-20, 2018, Proceedings, Part III 11 (pp. 28-35). Springer International Publishing.&lt;br&gt;