title: Fiberfox: facilitating the creation of realistic white matter software phantoms.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Phantom-based validation of diffusion-weighted image processing techniques is an important key to innovation in the field and is widely used. Openly available and user friendly tools for the flexible generation of tailor-made datasets for the specific tasks at hand can greatly facilitate the work of researchers around the world.
  
  
  METHODS
  We present an open-source framework, Fiberfox, that enables (1) the intuitive definition of arbitrary artificial white matter fiber tracts, (2) signal generation from those fibers by means of the most recent multi-compartment modeling techniques, and (3) simulation of the actual MR acquisition that allows for the introduction of realistic MRI-related effects into the final image.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We show that real acquisitions can be closely approximated by simulating the acquisition of the well-known FiberCup phantom. We further demonstrate the advantages of our framework by evaluating the effects of imaging artifacts and acquisition settings on the outcome of 12 tractography algorithms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that experiments on a realistic software phantom might change the conclusions drawn from earlier hardware phantom experiments. Fiberfox may find application in validating and further developing methods such as tractography, super-resolution, diffusion modeling or artifact correction.
authors: Computational Disease Analysis Group, Div. Medical and Biological Informatics, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
authors: Peter F
authors: PF
authors: Neher
authors: Frederik B
authors: FB
authors: Laun
authors: Bram
authors: B
authors: Stieltjes
authors: Klaus H
authors: KH
authors: Maier-Hein
mesh_terms: D016477:Artifacts; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012984:Software; D066127:White Matter
keywords: artifact simulation; diffusion-weighted imaging; open-source software; software phantoms; synthetic white matter fibers