Diattenuation of brain tissue and its impact on 3D polarized light imaging

3D-polarized light imaging (3D-PLI) reconstructs nerve fibers in histological brain sections by measuring their birefringence. This study investigates another effect caused by the optical anisotropy of brain tissue – diattenuation. Based on numerical and experimental studies and a complete analytical description of the optical system, the diattenuation was determined to be below 4 % in rat brain tissue. It was demonstrated that the diattenuation effect has negligible impact on the fiber orientations derived by 3D-PLI. The diattenuation signal, however, was found to highlight different anatomical structures that cannot be distinguished with current imaging techniques, which makes Diattenuation Imaging a promising extension to 3D-PLI.