How to tell diffusion sampling scheme from bval/bvec files alone? (shelled or cartesian)

1

Given a bvec and bval file, how could one mathemagically determine the diffusion sampling scheme used? (i.e. cartesian or shelled). (asking this as one with little math-background myself)

2

Hi @ajschadler,

Easiest option might just be to visualize the diffusion scheme. Each b-vector should describe a unit vector, and the associated b-val would be the length.

Shelled acquisition schemes will typically have a lot of volumes with the same b-bal (I.e., same q-space radius). Not that case with Cartesian.

Best,
Steven