Brain white matter lesions and cognitive impairment

Can white matter lesions cause memory loss?
White matter disease is an umbrella term for damage to your brain's white matter caused by reduced blood flow to the tissue.
It can cause issues with memory, balance and mobility..
Does white matter affect cognition?
Comprising roughly half the total brain volume, white matter tracts course throughout the brain to unite cortical and subcortical gray matter regions into functional neuronal ensembles subserving cognition and emotion (Catani et al..
What is the relationship between white matter lesions and cognition?
Accordingly, primary white matter damage results most prominently in cognitive slowing, whereas primary gray matter disease leads to more specific cognitive deficits, most apparent in the cortical dementia AD, which features amnesia, aphasia, apraxia, and amnesia related to regional neuronal and synaptic loss ( .
Severe white matter lesions (WMLs) are associated with cognitive impairment, global functional decline, cerebrovascular accident, mood disorders, gait, and balance dysfunction.
WMLs are also associated with grey matter atrophy and accelerate neurodegeneration.
White matter disease is an umbrella term for damage to your brain's white matter caused by reduced blood flow to the tissue.
It can cause issues with memory, balance and mobility.
WML are typically located in more superficial subcortical areas but are also prominent adjacent to the ventricles, in particular at the frontal and occipital horns (7).
Structural lesions in the white matter may cause symptoms because of disruption of fiber tracts.

White matter lesions are associated with both impaired mobility and reduced cognitive performance as measured by standard neuropsychological AbstractBackgroundResultsDiscussion

White matter lesion and rCBF in early-stage cognitive impairment (ESCI), such as subjective cognitive impairment (SCI), MCI, and mild dementia, may play a role in the prognosis of cognitive decline; however, the extent of this effect remains unclear.

What causes white matter to change?

Changes in white matter are said to begin at the age of 60, causing a decrease in cognitive ability.
White matter lesions occur most frequently among elderly people.
Degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis may cause changes in white matter.
Alzheimer's disease can bring about changes in white matter.

What is loss of white brain matter?

White matter diseases are caused due to the inflammatory process and loss of myelin sheath.
Small unnoticeable strokes in the brain may also damage the white matter and cause white matter disease.
The most common symptoms of white matter disease include:

issues with balance

difficulty in multitasking

and mood changes.
Multiple sclerosis .

What is the prognosis for white matter disease?

White Matter Disease is progressive.
It is a type of dementia, but does not follow any specific path, as Alzheimer’s types do, and while death waits at the end of any dementing disease’s path, White Matter Disease most often ends when the person strokes or the kidneys or heart fails.

Areas of myelinated axons in the brain

White matter refers to areas of the central nervous system (CNS) 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.

Brain white matter lesions and cognitive impairment

Can white matter lesions cause memory loss?

Does white matter affect cognition?

What is the relationship between white matter lesions and cognition?

What causes white matter to change?

What is loss of white brain matter?

What is the prognosis for white matter disease?