White matter is one of two categories of tissue in the nervous system. It forms the deep parts of the brain and the superficial parts of the spinal cord. It is composed of nerve cells processes (axons and dendrites) that connect various parts of the brain to each other and carry nerve impulses to or from the bodies of nerve cells (neuron). It differs from gray matter in that its neurons are covered with myelin.

Generally, white matter can be understood as the parts of the brain responsible for information transmission; whereas, gray matter is responsible for information processing.