white matter
nounDefinition of white matter
: neural tissue especially of the brain and spinal cord that consists largely of myelinated nerve fibers bundled into tracts, has a whitish color, and typically underlies the cortical gray matter
Examples of white matter in a Sentence
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Doctors knew Massimo suffered from a type of leukodystrophy, a genetic disorder of the central nervous system that destroys the brain’s white matter. — Wired, "One Scientist’s Quest to Bring DNA Sequencing to Every Sick Kid," 30 Aug. 2019 In addition, a fractional anisotropy allowed researchers to estimate how well neural signals were being carried by white matter brain tissue. — Fox News, "Routine football collisions could damage players' brains, researchers say," 13 Aug. 2019 Advanced studies of concussions and other traumatic-brain-injury cases often show changes in the white matter’s structure, connectivity, and volume. — Adam Entous, The New Yorker, "The Mystery of What Happened to American Diplomats and Spies in Havana Deepens," 29 July 2019 Extensive imaging tests showed the workers had less white matter than a comparison group of healthy people, researchers reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. — Lindsey Tanner, Los Angeles Times, "Victims of Havana embassy ‘sonic attack’ have distinctly different brains, MRIs show," 23 July 2019 Doctors found that in measuring white matter — nerve fibers that form the brain's communications network — the Cuba patients had a mean volume that was 27 cubic centimeters smaller than the control patients. — Josh Lederman, NBC News, "Doctors find differences in brains of U.S. diplomats who alleged mystery attacks in Cuba," 23 July 2019 The latest study builds on earlier preliminary reports involving 21 U.S. workers who got brain scans showing less detailed white matter changes. — Lindsey Tanner, Los Angeles Times, "Victims of Havana embassy ‘sonic attack’ have distinctly different brains, MRIs show," 23 July 2019 In contrast, a 2015 study of football players’ white matter, conducted by researchers at Boston University and published in the same journal, was tweeted 50 times and received more widespread notice. — Kim Tingley, New York Times, "Do Brain Injuries Affect Women Differently?," 26 June 2019 Returning to Earth helped the gray matter mostly bounce back but seemed to cause shrinkage in white matter, which connects parts of the brain. — National Geographic, "What happens to brains in space, and more breakthroughs," 12 June 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'white matter.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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