The hMRI analysis toolbox for quantitative MRI and in vivo histology using MRI (hMRI)

Quantitative magnetic resonance (qMRI) finds increasing interest in neuroscience and clinical research due to its greater specificity and its sensitivity to microstructural properties of brain tissue - myelin, iron and water concentration. We introduce the hMRI toolbox, an easy-to-use open-source tool for data handling and processing of quantitative MRI data. This toolbox, embedded in the SPM framework, allows the estimation of quantitative MRI maps (longitudinal and transverse relaxation rates R1 and R2*, proton density PD, and magnetization transfer MT), followed by spatial registration in common space for statistical analysis. It also offers flexibility for calculation of novel MRI biomarkers of tissue microstructure. The hMRI toolbox can be downloaded from http://hmri.info.