Van Dyken Peter C, Khan Ali R, Palaniyappan Lena
Neuroscience Graduate Program, Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Robarts Research Institute, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Imaging Neurosci (Camb). 2024 Jul 22;2. doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00221. eCollection 2024.
The superficial white matter, the layer of white matter immediately deep to the cortical grey matter, is a highly complex, heterogeneous tissue region comprising dense meshes of neural fibres, a robust population of interstitial neurons, and ongoing glial activity and myelination. It originates from the histologically distinct, developmentally vital subplate in the foetal brain, maintains thalamo-cortical connections throughout adult life, and is a necessary passage for all axons passing between the grey and white matter. Despite these features, the superficial white matter is among the most poorly understood regions of the brain, in part due to its complex makeup and the resulting difficulty of its study. In this review, we present our current knowledge of superficial white matter (SWM) anatomy, development, and response to disease. We discuss the unique challenges encountered in the neuroimaging of this region, including the lack of standard definition and the non-specificity of neuroimaging markers amplified by the complexity of the tissue. We discuss recent innovations and offer potential pathways forward.
浅表白质是紧位于皮质灰质深层的一层白质，是一个高度复杂、异质性的组织区域，由密集的神经纤维网、大量的间质神经元以及持续的胶质细胞活动和髓鞘形成组成。它起源于胎儿大脑中组织学上不同、发育至关重要的亚板，在整个成年期维持丘脑 - 皮质连接，并且是所有在灰质和白质之间通过的轴突的必经通道。尽管具有这些特征，但浅表白质仍是大脑中了解最少的区域之一，部分原因是其组成复杂，导致研究困难。在本综述中，我们介绍了我们目前对浅表白质（SWM）解剖结构、发育和疾病反应的认识。我们讨论了该区域神经成像中遇到的独特挑战，包括缺乏标准定义以及由于组织复杂性而放大的神经成像标记物的非特异性。我们讨论了最近的创新并提供了潜在的前进途径。
