White Matter Changes in Bipolar Disorder, Alzheimer Disease, and Mild Cognitive Impairment: New Insights from DTI

Neuropathological and neuroimaging studies have reported significant changes in white matter in psychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a recently developed technique, enables the detection of microstructural changes in white matter. It is a noninvasive in vivo technique that assesses water molecules' diffusion in brain tissues. The most commonly used parameters are axial and radial diffusivity reflecting diffusion along and perpendicular to the axons, as well as mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy representing global diffusion. Although the combination of these parameters provides valuable information about the integrity of brain circuits, their physiological meaning still remains controversial. After reviewing the basic principles of DTI, we report on recent contributions that used this technique to explore subtle structural changes in white matter occurring in elderly patients with bipolar disorder and Alzheimer disease.