Cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD)-related white matter hyperintensities of presumed vascular origin (WMH) are a common occurrence on brain imaging with uncertain effects on normal-appearing white matter (WM). cSVD is an arteriopathy affecting cerebral arteries, arterioles, venules, and capillaries [1]. A common manifestation of cSVD in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are WMH [2–5], which are linked to a plethora of other diseases [6–8]. Areas of severe WMH themselves exhibit axonal loss, dem…