Epilepsy is a serious neurological disease characterized by spontaneous recurrent seizures. Acquired epilepsy is associated with large-scale changes in gene expression which underlie the cell and network-level changes during epileptogenesis. Despite var...

Vascular dysfunction is observed after pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) and predicts poor outcome on the long term. In this study we investigated intracortical blood-vessel changes after injury in a new mouse model of pediatric TBI, CHILD - Closed...

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of premature death from disease. The neural response to smoking cue pictures in daily smokers has been extensively investigated. However, some scholars argue that the use of videotaped stimuli better resembles the ...

Effects of depression and childhood adversity on the volumes of the amygdala subnuclei and hippocampal subfields. Introduction: The hippocampus (HC) and the amygdala (AG) are amongst structures affected by major depressive disorder (MDD). Although a vol...

Individuals with childhood trauma are vulnerable to adverse life outcomes and show elevated risk for alcohol and substance abuse, which emerges during adolescence. This is also a critical time period when cognitive control, a fundamental cognitive capac...

The apolipoprotein E-ε4 (APOE4) gene is associated with an early age of onset and increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD), a debilitating dementia with early neurovascular dysfunction that is being increasingly documented. The role of apoE in the pat...

Introduction: In the brain of premature infants primary intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a common occurrence. It is usually unilateral and deep in the cerebrum near the ganglionic eminence beside the lateral ventricle. Blood can extend into the ventricles causing hydrocephalus. Even small lesions of this type, are associated with poor developmental outcome including cerebral palsy and mental retardation. The purpose of this study was to obtain magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the mouse brain after ICH and to correlate the images with histological evolution. Methods: ICH was induced in one-day-old mice, which are developmentally similar to a 24-26 weeks human fetus, by injection of autologous blood into the striatum. MRI was obtained 15 minutes to 48 hours later. Mice were perfused with 4% paraformaldehyde 8 hours to 28 days later. H&E, immunohistochemical, and TUNEL staining were used to quantify the lesion area, neutrophils, microglia, and cell death at the edge of the hemorrhagic lesion. Results: Hist...

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is typically diagnosed late in its progression. There is a need for biomarkers suitable for monitoring the disease progression at earlier stages to guide the development of novel neuroprotective therapies. One potential biomarker, α-synuclein, has been found in both the familial cases of PD, as well as the sporadic cases and is considered a key feature of PD. α-synuclein is naturally present in the retina, and it has been suggested that early symptoms of the visual system may be used as a biomarker for PD. Here, we use a viral vector to induce a unilateral expression of human wild-type α-synuclein in rats as a mechanistic model of protein aggregation in PD. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate whether adeno-associated virus (AAV) mediated expression of human wild-type α-synuclein alter functional activity in the visual system. A total of 16 rats were injected with either AAV-α-synuclein ( n  = 7) or ...

Neonatal stroke is an important cause of cognitive deficits, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy. The vulnerability and mechanisms of neonatal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion may differ from that in the mature cerebral nervous system. To determine if increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) contributes significantly to the acute ischemic injury in neonatal rats, we subjected postnatal day 7 (P7) rats to a 3 hr transient middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and evaluated the integrity of the BBB by using T1W MRI in conjunction with GdDTPA (0.3mmol/kg) at 4, 7 and 24 hr after reperfusion. To compare the patterns of post-ischemic BBB permeability in P7 versus adult rat brains, young adult rats (n=3) were subjected to 3hr MCA occlusion followed by reflow. Each animal was examined by DW-MRI (for cytotoxic edema), T2W-MRI (for vasogenic edema) and dynamic T2W* MRI in conjunction with contrast bolus (perfusion-sensitive), T1W MRI. Evans Blue was injected (i.v.) and animals sacrificed immediately following...

Co-registering functional brain images across subjects offers experimental advantages and is widely used for studies in humans. Voxel-based co-registration methods require a high-quality 3D template image. Here we describe the formation of T1-weighted structural MRI and PET blood flow template images for baboon and Macaca nemestrina. The images derive from 9 baboons, 12 macaques, and over 500 PET [15O]water scans. Custom software aligns individual MR images to the MRI template using a 12-parameter (affine) model. In the realigned baboon MR images, subcortical test points correspond closely to a photomicrographic atlas with an average error of 1.53mm. Cortical test points on average were within 1.99mm of the mean location for each point. Alignment of individual PET blood flow images directly to the PET template was compared to a two-step alignment process via each subject's MR image. The two transformations were identical within 0.41 mm, 0.54 degrees, and 1.0 percent (translation, rotation, and linear stret...