The validity of movement kinematics during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments is poorly controlled due to technical constraints of the imaging environment. To reliably identify brain areas related to simple and complex movement sequences as well as learning related motor performance changes it is important to control carefully for type, speed and accuracy of the performed movement. We present a method designed to record kinematics of drawing-like upper limb movements during functional magnetic resonance imaging. The recording system consists of a translucent plastic board, a plastic pen with fiber optics and a halogen light power source, a CCD camera, a video monitor and a PC with a video grabber card. Our method yields high temporal and spatial resolution of the recorded movement kinematics during fMRI scanning. Control experiments using a commercially available digitizer tablet show a) the reliability of the kinematic data recorded during functional magnetic resonance imaging and b)...

Fractal analysis has been used to quantify a wide range of complex and irregularly shaped objects in basic biology and medicine. In this study we measured the white matter (WM) fractal dimension (FD) based on human MR brain images. Coronal MR head images were collected from 6 healthy young (26.8±3.4) and 6 elderly (74.2±2.6) subjects using a 1.5T Siemens Vision scanner and a three-dimensional Turboflash imaging sequence (TR/TE = 11.4/4.4ms, flip angle = 10°). Slice thickness was 2 mm, in-plane resolution was 1 x 1 mm2. The head images were then resampled via trilinear interpolation to be 1 mm in thickness. The brain was segmented from the resampled head images using the BET tool in the FSL package. The WM was then segmented from the brain images using the FSL FAST tool and recorded as a binary (black & white) images. A 3-D thinning method was applied to the binary images to obtain skeletons of the WM. A box-counting dimension was adopted to define the FD of the WM skeleton which repeatedly meshed different...

Parkinson's disease is characterized by impaired initiation of movement, muscular rigidity and tremor clinically. In traditional Korean medicine, acupoints LR3 (Taechung) and GB34 (Yangneungcheon) have been used to treat such movement related disorders. Recently, we showed the neuroprotective and movement promoting effects of these acupoints with 6-OHDA induced Parkinson's disease rat model. In this study, we observed acupuncturing on (1) LR3 and (2) GB34 respectively, or on (3) both acupoints together activate movement-related brain areas with functional MRI (fMRI). Ten right-handed subjects participated in these fMRI experiments using a blocked paradigm on a 3T MRI scanner. In the group of LR3, medial frontal gyrus (Left ;L), fusiform gyrus (L), cerebellum (L), pons (L) and thalamus (Right ;R) were activated. In the group of GB34, middle frontal gyrus (R), lingual gyrus (L), cerebellum (R), parahippocampal gyrus (L), insula (L), cingulate gyrus (R, BA24), posterior cingulate gyrus (L, BA29), claustrum (R...

Functional MRI in conscious animals provides a new opportunity in drug discovery to identify patterns of brain activity characteristic of different classes of psychotropic molecules. To this end, rats were tested with functionally different classes of drugs used to treat schizophrenia - atypical (clozapine, respiridone) and typical (chlorpromazine, haloperidol) antipsychotics. Rats showed a dose-dependent (change in brain activity dominated by negative BOLD signal) within 10-15 min of iv injection of drug. Since the efficacy of these drugs is related, in part, to their affinity for dopamine receptors, animals were challenged with an ICV injection of apomorphine following neuroleptic treatment. While several areas of the brain were activated by apomorphine administration alone, the most robust increase in BOLD signal intensity occurred in the prefrontal cortex. The typical antipsychotics, haloperidol and chlorpromazine blocked the action of apomorphine in the prefrontal cortex, while respiradol and clozapin...

Objectives: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the cortical changes in pain perception when applying different kind of conditioning sensory stimuli, namely acupuncture (Meridian) and acupuncture-like (Sham) stimuli and to show that these stimuli are essentially those of the stress-inducing stimuli and the results are the consequence of the HPA axis reflexes. Methods: Brain activation was observed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a set of thermal stimuli as pain stimulus which induced by immersing the index finger into a hot water bath, approximately 51~52°C for 30 seconds. The experiment is performed by applying the pain following Meridian acupuncture and Sham acupuncture which applying needling to the traditionally known acupuncture points and points nearby but not those. These stimuli were manually twirling or rotating of a needle with approximately 1 Hz for a period of 30 seconds and rest period of 30 seconds with repetition of 5 times. Results: The results were co...

Pups reinforcing properties are so robust that they compete with self-administration of cocaine (Hecht et al., Dev Psychobiol 35:136,1999). Indeed, postpartum dams bar press for pups in an operant response paradigm (Lee et al., Behav Brain Res 108:215, 2000). The present studies use fMRI and 3D computational analyses to compare pup-induced vs cocaine-induced changes in brain activity in lactating dams. Mothers were imaged for postnatal days 4 – 8 in response to pups (n=6) or ICV cocaine (20ug/10 ul) (n=6). A third group (n=6), imaged virgin females in response to ICV cocaine. A multi-slice fast spin echo sequence acquired twelve 1.2mm slices in 6s. All imaging consisted of 3 min (30 rep.) of control followed by 5 min (50 rep.) of stimulus. A 4.7T/40cm horiz. magnet was used. The results for n subjects in each group were presented individually and as group composites. The analysis involved three major steps registration, segmentation and statistical analysis. Subjects were registered to a fully segmented 3D...

Emotion can be described by both dimensional and categorical models, exemplified respectively by Peter Lang’s dimensions of valence, salience and arousal and by Paul Ekman’s six basic emotional expressions – happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger and disgust. Both models are supported by functional brain imaging. We previously reported increased activity of the anterior insula in response to images evoking disgust, but not to frightening images. Schienle et al. recently published contradictory data showing activation of the anterior insula by both disgust and fear. Since they included pictures of mutilations in their disgust category, we conducted the experiment using three categories: firstly, pictures of contaminants, secondly, pictures of mutilations and thirdly, pictures of imminent threat. The pictures were presented in three 3-minute runs, each consisting of alternating blocks of emotional and neutral pictures. MRI data were acquired using a 3T Siemens Allegra and analyzed using Brain Voyager (Bra...

CCHS patients show impaired ventilatory responses to CO2 and hypoxia, a reduced drive to breathe during sleep, and aberrant cardiovascular responses to blood pressure elevation, suggesting deficient central neural regulatory processes. We examined fMRI signal changes in the brain for thirteen CCHS patients (age: mean 11, and range 8-15 years; no Hirschsprung’s, pulmonary, cardiac or neuromuscular disease) and fourteen age- and gender-matched control subjects to forced expiratory effort, a challenge that induces blood pressure elevation. Two fMRI series were collected while patients lay supine in the scanner. The first series was a 150 s baseline, where subjects breathed normally through a mouthpiece; the second consisted of 30 s baseline, followed by 120 s forced expiratory effort, where subjects breathed against a closed glottis. Images were adjusted for slice timing differences, motion corrected, spatially normalized, segmented into gray matter, smoothed and intensity normalized. Random-effects analysis ...

Stereotactic placement of deep brain stimulation (DBS) leads for the treatment of movement disorders has traditionally been guided by microrecording and macrostimulation in awake patients, with subsequent confirmation by MRI after the lead’s stylet has been removed. When placement errors occur, the surgery must be repeated and the lead replaced. Visual guidance by concurrent MRI would improve placement accuracy and reduce the need for repeated surgeries. An MRI-compatible trajectory guidance system (IGN) has been developed to fix DBS leads in place without removing the stylet, and allow remote adjustment of the lead position as needed. In preparation for clinical applications, we performed safety tests of this device in a 1.5-Tesla Siemens Sonata MR system. We evaluated local temperature changes using clinically relevant and ¨worst-case¨ MRI sequences in a semi-solid, gel-filled phantom. The lead tip (Medtronic), with stylet in place, was immersed into the phantom using the trajectory guide and remote intr...

Previously, we have demonstrated that fMRI can be used to map age-associated changes in nigrostriatal system with dopaminergic stimulation in normal rhesus monkeys (NeuroImage 14: 1159-1167, 2001). In the present study, fMRI was used to map dopamine (DA) receptor-mediated blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) changes indicative of neuronal activity in the basal ganglia of hemiparkinsonian rhesus monkeys. Unilateral infusion of MPTP via the right carotid artery was used to induce unilateral parkinsonian features in 12 monkeys; 3 age-matched normal monkeys served as controls. Apomorphine (APO, 0.1mg/kg s.c.), a mixed dopamine D1/D2 receptor agonist, evoked strong activation in the MPTP-lesioned caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus (GP) and substantia nigra (SN) with little change detected on the intact side of these structures. The activation on the lesioned side persisted in the GP until administration 15 min later of the D1 receptor antagonist (SCH-23390, 0.1mg/kg i.m.). APO-induced activation was rever...