  3D-Polarized Light Imaging (3D-PLI) reconstructs nerve fibers in histological
brain sections by measuring their birefringence. This study investigates
another effect caused by the optical anisotropy of brain tissue -
diattenuation. Based on numerical and experimental studies and a complete
analytical description of the optical system, the diattenuation was determined
to be below 4 % in rat brain tissue. It was demonstrated that the diattenuation
effect has negligible impact on the fiber orientations derived by 3D-PLI. The
diattenuation signal, however, was found to highlight different anatomical
structures that cannot be distinguished with current imaging techniques, which
makes Diattenuation Imaging a promising extension to 3D-PLI.
