A method for identifying and spatially mapping microenvironments using coarse-resolution correlation spectroscopic imaging includes acquiring, using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, acquired data that includes high-dimensional contrast encoded data of a target for each of multiple voxels. The method also includes creating, using a signal processor, a model of the acquired data as a spatially-varying mixture of high dimensional real-valued exponential decays. The method also includes estimating, using the signal processor, a multidimensional correlation spectroscopic image that includes a multidimensional correlation spectrum at each of the multiple voxels.
DIFFUSION-RELAXATION CORRELATION SPECTROSCOPIC IMAGING