The Sources of White Matter Lateralization Explored by Conjunction of Quantitative MRI Methods

Aviv Mezer¹, Jason Yeatman¹, Ariel Rokem¹, Brian Wandell¹

We explore different sources of tissue variations along white matter tracts. Combining quantitative MRI maps (T1,PD) with diffusion-weighted imaging and tractography, we find that white matter lateralization in tractography-based fiber count and in FA can be explained by (a) variation in the location and proportion of crossing fibers along the length of the tract, and (b) differences in the physico-chemical environment between the hemispheres.