title: Conceptual Foundations of Diffusion in Magnetic Resonance.
abstract: A thorough review of the q-space technique is presented starting from a discussion of Fick's laws. The work presented here is primarily conceptual, theoretical and hopefully pedagogical. We offered the notion of molecular concentration to unify Fick's laws and diffusion MRI within a coherent conceptual framework. The fundamental relationship between diffusion MRI and the Fick's laws are carefully established. The conceptual and theoretical basis of the q-space technique is investigated from first principles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705.
authors.forename: Cheng Guan
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Koay
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215.
authors.forename: Evren
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Özarslan
keywords: DT-MRI; Fick's law; NMR; diffusion propagator; diffusion tensor; diffusion tensor MRI; propagator; q-space