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-T
₁
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-T
₁
brain datasets provides quantitative information about macroscopic WM characteristics and helps discriminating between normal and pathological aging