1 Different regions of the brain 2 A slice through the brain showing the left

and right cerebral hemispheres (a) and the

What is White Matter? distribution of white and grey matter (b).
X Y

White matter is a type of tissue in the brain that is white matter

X grey matter
made up of axons and a lot of a fatty substance frontal lobe parietal lobe (a) (b)
called myelin (fig 3a). The myelin is what makes the
tissue appear ‘white’ in some types of brain scans.
left right
What is white matter made of? occipital
lobe
• Neurons These are brain cells that carry temporal lobe
signals from one part of the brain to another (fig 3a).
An important part of a neuron, the long thin tubular cerebellum
structure called the axon, is wrapped in myelin,
which acts like the insulation layer that covers spinal cord
electrical wires. It helps the signals to travel quicker
down the axon. These neuron axons can group
together, travelling in the same direction to form
‘fibre bundles’ (fig 3b).
Y
• Connective pathways When fibre bundles 3 A neuron with myelin wrapped around the
are large enough, they are called white matter axon (a) and neuron axons grouped together
pathways (fig 4). They connect different regions of to form a ‘fibre bundle’ (b).
4 Brain slices showing the location of two white
the brain to each other. Some are very short and matter pathways, the Corpus Callosum (red)
connect neighbouring sections of the brain. Others X Y
(a) (b) and IFOF (green).
are much longer and might connect the front of the
brain to the back, or the left half of the brain to the X X
right half. Some pathways are small and thin, some
are very thick and large.
Two examples of white matter pathways are the
Inferior Fronto-Occipital Fasciculus (IFOF), which neuron
Y
body X
connects the front and back regions of the brain
and the Corpus Callosum pathway, which connects
the left and right cerebral hemispheres together dendrites
and is the biggest pathway in the brain (fig 4).

How do we measure white matter?

Scientists and doctors can look at these white neuron axon
wrapped in myelin
matter pathways in living brains. They use a type
of brain scan called an MRI (Magnetic Resonance
Imaging) scan to capture information and create
3D pictures of these white matter pathways. synaptic boutons
Y

This introductory information sheet was produced as part of This information sheet represents independent research part funded by the National Institute
a participatory research exercise in March 2019. For more for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS
information please contact Anoushka.1.leslie@kcl.ac.uk Foundation Trust and King’s College London. The views expressed are those of the authors and
not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.