Joint and Distinct Cognitive-Motor Associations with Multivariate White Matter Microstructure and Connectivity

Multivariate white matter microstructure strongly links to both cognitive and motor behaviors across brain regions, with distinct and overlapping patterns identified.

• Why it matters: Understanding how white matter microstructure relates to behavior is crucial for insights into brain function and potential interventions, yet current methods lack clarity due to indirect assessments.
• What they did: Using Mahalanobis Distance to integrate 10 neuroimaging metrics, the study analyzed voxelwise WM-behavior associations across four tasks, revealing complex, domain-specific patterns.
• The result: Findings demonstrate that cognitive and motor tasks share WM microstructural features, emphasizing the importance of multivariate models to capture the nuanced brain-behavior relationships.