Key facts
- Location
- Central nervous system
- Latin
- substantia alba
- Mesh
- D066127
- Ta98
- A14.1.00.009 , A14.1.02.024 , A14.1.02.201 , A14.1.04.101 , A14.1.05.102 , A14.1.05.302 , A14.1.06.201
via Wikipedia infobox
Research
88,409 papers- White matter aging drives microglial diversity.Neuron · 2021
- White matter changes in Alzheimer's disease: a focus on myelin and oligodendrocytes.Acta neuropathologica communications · 2018
- The development of brain white matter microstructure.NeuroImage · 2018
- White matter damage and degeneration in traumatic brain injury.Trends in neurosciences · 2024
- White matter aging and its impact on brain function.Neuron · 2025
via PubMed
~10 min read
Encyclopedic overview
White matter structure of human brain (taken by MRI). Anterior on the right.
White matter refers to areas of the central nervous system that are mainly made up of myelinated axons, also called tracts. Long thought to be passive tissue, white matter affects learning and brain functions, modulating the distribution of action potentials, acting as a relay and coordinating communication between different brain regions.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “white matter” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.