Emotional resilience to stressful events depends, in part, on our ability to predict and control threats in the environment. Thus, determining the neural response to predictable and controllable threats, may provide new insights into brain processes tha...

There is an increasing acceptance that neurodegenerative diseases manifest as network disorders. In particular, we have established that corticobasal syndrome (CBS) is characterized by structural network degeneration involving grey matter and white matt...

Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) is a relatively frequent event that imposes a massive burden on the health, quality of life and socioeconomic situation of affected persons. Tissue damage after SCI occurs in two phases: primary and secondary damage. P...

Previously, it has been shown that aesthetic judgments of an artwork depend on contexts, such as the authenticity (Newman et al., 2011), or the display place (Kirk et al., 2009). In the present study, we aimed to examine whether the contextual informati...

The correspondences or differences between human and nonhuman primates in connectivity between auditory cortex and other brain regions remain open questions: What is the evidence for evolutionary conservation or specialization in effective connectivity ...

Preliminary studies suggest that MRI may be useful for distinguishing between vasogenic edema (open BBB edema) and cytotoxic or cellular edema (closed BBB edema). Cold injury-induced brain trauma (CIBT) is the classic small-animal model of vasogenic cerebral edema. Rats were anesthetized and maintained at 37oC. The skull was exposed, and a cooled brass probe was placed in direct contact with the skull, over the right hemisphere, for 2 minutes. Twenty-four hours later MRI was performed. Images were collected on a 7T horizontal bore MR system with 220mT/m actively shielded gradients (TR/TE = 8/0.05 s, pixel resolution = 115x230x1000µm. The T2 weighted image and T2 map clearly delineated the borders of the infarct. The contrast in both images was maximal at the base of the infarct. BBB integrity was also assessed 24-hours after CIBT from gadolinium (Gd)-enhanced, T1-weighted images obtained 30 minutes after a tail-vein injection of Gd-DTPA. It was noteworthy that BBB breakdown was most extensive along the top...

Exposures to maternal infection and excess stress during pregnancy represent intrauterine conditions that have been associated with an increased susceptibility for schizophrenia and autism. While inflammatory cytokines are requisite for typical fetal br...

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI), particularly of the executive function subtype, which includes working memory, attention and dual tasking (DT), is the earliest and most prominent cognitive deficit in Parkinson's disease (PD). While alteration in cortic...

The spinal cord is the main interface between the brain and the periphery. Rather than acting as a simple relay, it actively participates in the sensorimotor processes. However, the nature of the underlying spinal mechanisms remains to be investigated. ...

Purpose: We evaluated the accuracy and precision of diffusion tensor tracking (DTT) using simulations, and applied DTT to study visual pathways in living humans. Methods: For simulations, synthetic diffusion-tensor MRI (DT-MRI) images were computed for a curved pathway and fed into the DTT procedure (1) after adding noise. Errors between simulated and ideal tracks were computed under various conditions. Human DTT experiments were performed using custom single-shot echo-planar DT-MRI. Tracks were computed from a whole-brain array of seed points (1), and pathways were obtained using a selection procedure based on anatomical or functional MRI (1). We obtained trans-commissural and geniculocalcarine tracts (GCTs), ventral (occipital-temporal) pathways, and U-fibers. Results: Typical accuracy and precision was < 1mm from simulation, consistent with experimental results (Figure). The tracked GCT, including Meyer's loop, connected the lateral geniculate nucleus with striate cortex. The trans-commissural pathwa...