ISMRM Workshop on White Matter: MR Imaging and Beyond

This in-person workshop from the White Matter Study Group will start by reviewing the importance and major implications of characterizing white matter with MRI, the methods for validating MRI findings, and how preclinical models of white matter pathologies can be translated to routine. The program will then focus on methodological aspects related to white matter models (including in silico microstructure substrates and cutting-edge models such as organoids), the challenges and biases associated with relaxometry and susceptibility-based white matter imaging, and solutions for white matter analyses including (open-source) toolboxes and AI-based approaches. A session that ventures off the beaten path will move beyond the purely microstructural aspects of white matter to explore its links with vascular and metabolic processes, as well as white matter activity through functional connectivity and conductivity, and the relationship between perivascular spaces and surrounding structures. Last but not least, the program will be devoted to clinical aspects, covering white matter neurodevelopmental and genetic disorders, neuromodulation, to finish with a special focus and a panel discussion on the added value of quantitative MRI in clinical practice.

This workshop is carefully structured to be interdisciplinary and bring together brain and spinal cord researchers and clinicians and provides opportunities for one-on-one discussions, informal networking, and interaction between trainees and established researchers, M.D.s, and Ph.D.'s. It will offer CME credits.