Texture Anisotropy of the Brain´s White Matter as Revealed by Anatomical MRI

The purpose of this work was to study specific texture properties of the brain\´s white matter (WM) based on conventional high-resolution T ₁-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets. Quantitative parameters anisotropy and laminarity were derived from 3-D texture analysis. Differences in WM texture associated with gender were evaluated on an age-matched sample of 210 young healthy subjects (mean age 24.8, SD 3.97 years, 103males and 107 females). Changes of WM texture with age were studied using 112 MRI-T₁ datasets of healthy subjects aged 16 to 70years (57 males and 55 females). Both texture measures indicated a "more regular" WM structure in females (p<10^-6). An age-related deterioration of WM structure manifests itself as a remarkable decline of both parameters (p<10^-6) that is more prominent in females (p<10^-6 ) than in males (p=0.02). Texture analysis of anatomical MRI-T₁ brain datasets provides quantitative information about macroscopic WM characteristics and helps discriminating between normal and pathological aging