# dMRI-F: A Foundation Model for Generalizable Diffusion MRI Analysis from Sparse Acquisitions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.17968 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.17968/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 72 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 13 Oct 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07258/) (2021)
- [Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09661/) (2020)
- [VoxelMorph: A Learning Framework for Deformable Medical Image Registration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.05231/) (2018)
- [Self-supervised Visual Feature Learning with Deep Neural Networks: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.06162/) (2019)
- [A Survey on Self-supervised Learning: Algorithms, Applications, and Future Trends](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.05712/) (2023)
- [SynthMorph: learning contrast-invariant registration without acquired images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.10282/) (2020)
- [FastSurfer -- A fast and accurate deep learning based neuroimaging pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.03866/) (2019)
- [TractSeg - Fast and accurate white matter tract segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.07103/) (2018)
- [Bayesian Image Quality Transfer with CNNs: Exploring Uncertainty in dMRI Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.00664/) (2017)
- [Patch2Self: Denoising Diffusion MRI with Self-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.01355/) (2020)
- [Superficial White Matter Analysis: An Efficient Point-cloud-based Deep Learning Framework with Supervised Contrastive Learning for Consistent Tractography Parcellation across Populations and dMRI Acquisitions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.08975/) (2022)
- [Q-space Conditioned Translation Networks for Directional Synthesis of Diffusion Weighted Images from Multi-modal Structural MRI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.13188/) (2021)
- [Spatio-Angular Convolutions for Super-resolution in Diffusion MRI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.00854/) (2023)
- [Brain-ID: Learning Contrast-agnostic Anatomical Representations for Brain Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16914/) (2023)
- [Angular Super-Resolution in Diffusion MRI with a 3D Recurrent Convolutional Autoencoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15598/) (2022)
- [SRDTI: Deep learning-based super-resolution for diffusion tensor MRI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09069/) (2021)
- [Detailed delineation of the fetal brain in diffusion MRI via multi-task learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06716/) (2024)
- [SIINR: Structurally Informed Implicit Neural Representations for super-resolution with uncertainty quantification of clinical quality diffusion MRI datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.19943/) (2026)
- [Prior-Guided Implicit Neural Representations for Single-Subject Diffusion MRI Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.00981/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Diffusion MRI (dMRI) probes water diffusion within the brain, providing unique information about tissue microstructure and white matter connectivity. High-quality dMRI enables advanced and accurate analyses but demands dense acquisitions, resulting in long scan times and hardware constraints that are often infeasible. Further, dMRI requires dedicated computational methods to support diverse analysis tasks (e.g., parcellation, registration, and synthesis) for both neuroscientific and clinical applications. Here, we present dMRI-F, a foundation model that unifies dMRI data enhancement and downstream tasks across diverse acquisitions and populations, while requiring only minimal acquisition input. dMRI-F is pre-trained with a q-space masked reconstruction task: predicting densely sampled multi-shell data from only six volumes. It learns generalizable latent feature representations of dMRI data, which serve as a core foundation for adapting to diverse downstream tasks, including brain parcellation, brain registration, and cross-modal synthesis. Across nine independently acquired datasets, we demonstrate that dMRI-F outperforms state-of-the-art methods with robust generalization across acquisitions, populations, and tasks. Our results demonstrate dMRI-F's versatility as a general-purpose framework that enables diverse dMRI applications from low-cost, sparse acquisitions.