ABSTRACT
The cytoarchitecture of the human brain is the study of the arrangement of cells within the tissue, while the myeloarchitecture is the study of the arrangement and density of myelin that surrounds the axons of the neurons in the cerebral cortex. To achieve axial resolution along the optical axis of light propagation, optical coherence tomography utilizes coherence gating strategies with a Michelson interferometer. The interferometric signal is dispersed by a spectrometer and recorded by a line-scan camera such that the optical spectrum is obtained. Birefringence is an optical property of structures that introduce a change in the polarization state as polarized light propagates through the structure. The type, shape, and size of neurons vary dramatically throughout the human brain, which influences the optical properties of the brain tissue. The optical properties of scattering and birefringence originate from the underlying cellular and molecular content, such as size, cellular density, myelin content, and structural alignment.
