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 ...

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...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) elicits an inflammatory response in the CNS that involves both resident and peripheral immune cells. In this pilot study, we characterize a cryoinjury animal model of TBI using MRI and histopathology, to study its pathogenes...

Binocular disparity is an important cue for depth perception. Disparity-sensitive fMRI responses have been reported in a variety of visual cortical regions (Tsao et al., 2003), suggesting that the disparity information is transferred among several areas...

The assessment of resting-state functional connectivity (FC) has become an important tool in studying brain disorders. Here we define functional connectivity as correlations of brain activity between two or more anatomically distinct brain regions with ...

Oscillatory activity in certain rhythms that can describe the behavioral state of an animal can be a potential marker of brain injury in a well-defined neural morphology, such as that of the cerebellum. Brain injuries that result from trauma have long b...

The medial temporal lobe (MTL), which includes the hippocampus and adjacent entorhinal, perirhinal, and parahippocampal cortices, plays a critical role in the formation of declarative memories (1). Intracranial electrical stimulation has shown potential...

Introduction: Proprioception is our sense of the position and movement of our limbs. It allows us to know where our limbs are in space so that we can carry out coordinated movements such as reaching. Previous neuroimaging studies have identified human b...

Background: Gait disturbance, clumsiness, and other mild movement problems are often observed in autism spectrum disorder (ASD; Rinehart et al., 2006). This study focused on brain changes that may indicate the neural basis for these motor symptoms that ...

Several studies have demonstrated that memories for painful events are often inaccurate and generally overestimated. The magnitude and direction of the discrepancy between remembered pain and actual pain are dependent upon many factors. Redelmeier and K...