Many neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by microstructural changes in white matter, including demyelination and cell loss. Such changes have been demonstrated to produce measurable effects on the MR signal. This work examines these effects from post-mortem fixed rat brain on voxel-wise, high-resolution water spectra acquired using a multi-gradient echo pulse sequence. Results demonstrate that components of the spectra are differentially affected by both white matter orientation relative to B0 as well as tissue microstructure. This suggests that water proton spectra may be sensitive to the tissue microenvironment and could serve as potential MRI based biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases.
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