Hurtubise JM, Gorbet DJ, Hynes LM, Macpherson AK, Sergio LE. White Matter Integrity and Its Relationship to Cognitive-Motor Integration in Females with and without Post-Concussion Syndrome. J Neurotrauma. 2020 Jul 1;37(13):1528-1536. doi: 10.1089/neu.2019.6765. Epub 2020 Mar 18. PMID: 31928154.
Significance of the research:
Thinking and moving together is something we do every day; it is called cognitive-motor integration (CMI) which simply means different parts of the brain working together to accomplish a desired task. White matter covers different parts of the brain. Areas required to complete more complex tasks have more white matter than those required to successfully perform more simplified tasks. As a result, the integrity of the white matter in the brain is an important factor in our ability to execute more complex tasks and future research is required to see how injury such as concussions may play a role in altering this white matter.