We previously demonstrated that adoptive transfer of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg) into 1-methyl 4-phenyl 1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) intoxicated animals leads to robust protection of nigral dopaminergic neurons and their terminal connection...

A substantial degree of overlap in cortical activation when carrying out real or imagined reaching movements is well established in healthy participants. There exists critical overlap when imagining movements - but not generating them - in the posterior...

Tourette syndrome (TS) is a continuous lifelong condition that is highly prevalent and socially embarrassing. Although motor and vocal tics usually wane by the late teenage years, some individuals require medical or behavioral interventions. However, th...

Recent advances in ultra-high field MRI have enabled to probe intra-cortical details of structure and function in living humans at sub-millimetric resolutions. The laminar structure of the neocortex provides a natural coordinate system for intra-cortica...

Amnestic Alzheimer's disease (aAD) is defined by early atrophy of the medial temporal lobes (MTL) before spreading to neocortex. Following early memory difficulty, patients show impairments in other cognitive domains. In contrast, atypical Alzheimer's d...

[Aim] The purpose of this study was to evaluate in the same cat the reproducibility, dependency on stimulus spatial frequency and similarity to the optical intrinsic signal (OIS) of iso-orientation maps obtained from blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) and cerebral blood volume (CBV)-weighted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). [Methods] BOLD-fMRI, CBV-weighted fMRI with monocrystalline iron oxide nanoparticle (10 mg/kg MION) and 570-nm OIS imaging were sequentially performed on the same anesthetized cats. An identical periodic visual stimulation (full-field moving gratings of 4 orientations alternated with homogeneous gray (10 s each) / period) was used in all measurements. Functional MRI at 9.4-Tesla was performed on a 2-cm x 2-cm area parallel to marginal gyrus (area 18) of one hemisphere with a surface coil. The position and orientation of a 1-mm thickness imaging slice (128 x 128 pixels) were determined based on cortical emerging veins with a high resolution venogram. By using Fourier a...

Pain-related cerebral activation in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows less consistent blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals that decay earlier than in conventional task-related activation. It may result from pain's inhibitory effects on the global cerebral hemodynamics and activation of the descending pain inhibitory systems. Using event-related fMRI, we have examined whether pain affects cerebral activation by a saccade task through such inhibitory mechanisms. Six right-handed volunteers underwent whole-brain echo-planar imaging on a 3 T MRI scanner, while they received thermal pain stimulus at 50°C on the right forearm (P; n = 6); performed a visually guided saccade task (V; n = 6); and went through simultaneous P and V (PV; n = 5). Each consisted of 60 cycles of 1-s stimulus followed by 14-s rest condition. BOLD signal time courses were analyzed at local maxima of averaged functional activation maps. P activated the bilateral secondary somatosensory cortex (S2). V activated t...

The basal ganglia (BG) form a group of nuclei in the midbrain that are important for cognitive processes, such as motor control and response inhibition. These nuclei also play a role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s Disease (PD), where dopaminergic ce...

Sex differences in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in APOE4 carriers is eminent in the early stages. Early changes in white matter microstructure and alteration in regional brain volumes can be indicative of neurodegeneration during disease ...

Neuroinflammation is currently a hot topic in brain research, due to its involvement in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders. However, non-invasive techniques capable to characterize brain inflammation in vivo are lack...