Introduction Evidence suggests that despite their close interaction, the hippocampal network serving cognitive memory, and the neostriatal-prefrontal network serving speech and language are distinct in their functions. A theoretical question is whether ...

Previous research has shown that with age and disease, the integrity of grey matter structures decline. One such measure of grey matter integrity is cortical thickness, where lower values represent thinning of the cortical surface. Given that cognitive ...

Background: Endorphine release is stimulated by alcohol intake and activates central mu-opioid receptors, which may contribute to the rewarding effects of alcohol. Blockade of central opioid receptors with naltrexone reduces the relapse risk among alcoholics and may enable executive behavior control to inhibit alcohol urges. Methods: Mu-opioid receptor availability and alcohol craving were measured with [C-11]carfentanil PET and the Obsessive Compulsive Drinking Scale in ten abstinent alcoholics. MRI-coregistered PET images were acquired after 40 to 70 minutes post tracer injection. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to assess activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex with a complex audiovisual stimulation paradigm. Patients were then treated with naltrexone (50mg/day) for eight weeks and the relapse rate was assessed in regular visits. Results: Alcohol craving was significantly correlated with mu-opioid receptor availability in the right dorsolateral prefrontal and orbitofrontal ...

Vascular dysfunction is increasingly recognized in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and measures of vascular dysfunction can be evaluated using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and imaging-based biomarker approaches. A clinical need exists to i...

Disintegration of axonal myelin sheaths leads to impaired impulse transduction and is associated with severe neurological/neurodegenerative diseases. Yet, spatially resolved assessment of myelin content in the brain remains a challenge. Currently, magne...

The aim of this work is to examine the influence of the muscle architecture on the surface electromyography (sEMG) signal recorded during the activation of the first dorsal interosseous (FDI), a multifunctional muscle of the hand responsible for both in...

Introduction Efficacy of cell therapy in stroke has recently been demonstrated in rodents. There is optimism that cell therapy may help to overcome a current dilemma in stroke therapy: so far most alternative therapeutic strategies including about 60 ne...

Filial imprinting in precocious birds, one type of learning, is the formation of a strong social attachment of a newborn to the parents and siblings. Although this learning process leaves a strong memory trace that persists throughout later life, the site of memory acquired through filial imprinting is controversial. We present here a series of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies revealing substantial evidence for a distinct forebrain region in ducklings that responds selectively to an imprinted form, as compared with a wide range of control stimuli. By exposing to a moving, two dimensional geometric form on a liquid crystal display, newly hatched ducklings quickly learn it as an imprinting object. Mapping changes in fMRI signal in such trained animals revealed a broad area in the rostral-lateral region of the neostriatum that responds selectively to the trained (imprinting) stimulus with simultaneous activations in the ventral-frontal regions of hypothalamus, a center of homeostasis and r...

Using perfusion MRI with continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) cerebral blood flow (CBF) can be measured directly at the capillary level [1]. The common belief is that perfusion MRI is more closely related to the neural activity than most functional ...

The current work describes the creation of a software program (MrAnats: Magnetic Resonance-based Adaptive NeuroAnatomy Teaching Software) for teaching introductory neuroanatomy. With the advent of neuroimaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imagi...