to see what makes one brain smarter than another. Or to discover whether hidden traits might be driving a person’s schizophrenia or dyslexia. A new kind of imaging technique is helping scientists observe such evidence, and it is revealing a surprise: intelligence, and a variety of mental syndromes, may be influenced by tracts within the brain made exclusively of white matter. Gray matter, the s...

Vanishing white matter disease 1 (VWM) is a puzzling leukoencephalopathy caused by mutations in any of the five genes encoding eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B (eIF2B), an ubiquitously expressed protein complex with a crucial role in initiation of mRNA translation for virtually every protein in the human body. VWM is one of the most prevalent inherited childhood white matter disorder...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are associated with progressive age-related cognitive decline and cardiovascular risk factors, but their biological relevance as indicators of generalized white matter injury is unclear. Diffusion tensor imaging provides more sensitive indications of subtle white matter disruption and can therefore clarify whether WMHs represent foci o...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE MRI segmentation and mapping techniques were used to assess evidence in support of categorical distinctions between periventricular white matter hyperintensities (PVWMH) and deep WMH (DWMH). Qualitative MRI studies generally identify 2 categories of WMH on the basis of anatomical localization. Separate pathophysiologies and behavioral consequences are often attributed to ...

OBJECTIVE White matter lesions are often seen on MR scans of elderly non-demented and demented people. They are attributed to degenerative changes of small vessels and are implicated in the pathogenesis of cognitive decline and dementia. There is evidence that especially periventricular white matter lesions are related to cognitive decline, whereas subcortical white matter lesions may be relate...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relationship between circadian blood pressure patterns and the extent of cerebral white matter lesions (WML). DESIGN Case-control study. PARTICIPANTS A total of 227 healthy subjects older than 55 years were investigated. Extent and occurrence of WML were evaluated using a computer-supported image analysis system. Circadian blood pressure variation was defined as th...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The impact of white matter hyperintensities on the diffusion characteristics of crossing tracts is unclear. This study used quantitative tractography at 3T MR imaging to compare, in the same individuals, the diffusion characteristics of corpus callosum tracts that crossed white matter hyperintensities with the diffusion characteristics of corpus callosum tracts that did n...

The importance of macrostructural white matter changes, including white matter lesions and atrophy, in intact brain functioning is increasingly being recognized. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) enables measurement of the microstructural integrity of white matter. Loss of white matter integrity in aging has been reported, but whether this is inherent to the aging process itself or results from sp...

The authors assessed individual differences in cortical recruitment, brain morphology, and inhibitory task performance. Similar to previous studies, older adults tended toward bilateral activity during task performance more than younger adults. However, better performing older adults showed less bilateral activity than poorer performers, contrary to the idea that additional activity is universa...