Previous magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based volumetric studies have shown age-related increases in the volume of total white matter and decreases in total gray matter volume in normal children. However, detailed maps of dynamic growth patterns in the human brain are not yet available. We studied serial structural MRI scans (1.92 to 4.52 year scan interval) from twelve healthy children between the ages of 6 and 19. The follow-up scan of each subject was first rigidly aligned to the baseline scan. Both scans were then aligned to the standard space as defined by the International Consortium for Brain Mapping (ICBM) using a nine parameter affine linear transformation. A non-linear elastic intensity-based registration algorithm was used to deform the source image to the target by maximizing the mutual information between the deforming source and target. Based on the Jacobian map of the deformation field, an annualized tissue change map was then computed for each individual. An example tissue change map for ...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in children and young adolescents in the United States. Animal models of reproducible TBI are necessary to characterize the mechanisms involved in damage and repair at the tissue, cellular and molecular levels. We established a mouse model of TBI, using a computer-driven, controlled cortical impact (CCI) device, and a stereotactic head holder. The CCI device is based on a microprocessor-controlled linear motor, where strike velocity, contusion depth and contusion time are precisely controlled and monitored through a real-time interface. Using high field strength (9.4T) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we obtained longitudinal data by scanning mice at 24 hours, 72 hours, 7 and 14 days after injury. We used behavioral assessments and traditional histological techniques to validate the model. MRI has also been used to validate injury severity and location, enabling efficient optimization of the model and CCI device parameters. Our resu...

We identified and mapped an anatomically localized failure of cortical maturation in Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic condition associated with deletion of ∼20 contiguous genes on chromosome 7. Detailed three-dimensional (3D) maps of cortical thickness, based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 164 brain hemispheres, identified a delimited zone of right hemisphere perisylvian cortex that was thicker in WS than in matched controls, despite pervasive gray and white matter deficits and reduced total cerebral volumes. 3D cortical surface models were extracted from 82 T1-weighted brain MRI scans (256 × 192 × 124 volumes) of 42 subjects with genetically confirmed WS (mean ± SD, 29.2 ± 9.0 years of age; 19 males, 23 females) and 40 age-matched healthy controls (27.5 ± 7.4 years of age; 16 males, 24 females). A cortical pattern-matching technique used 72 sulcal landmarks traced on each brain as anchors to align cortical thickness maps across subjects, build group average maps, and identify regions with a...

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study memory-associated activation of medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions in 3 groups: cognitively intact elderly controls (n=10), individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI, n=9), and patients with probable Alzheimer’s disease (AD, n=10). Subjects performed a face-name associative encoding task during fMRI scanning, and were tested for recognition of stimuli afterward. High-resolution structural and fMRI data were acquired with a 3T scanner. Two approaches were used to analyze MRI data: statistical parametric mapping of group mean activation and differences between groups, and a functional-anatomic method in which fMRI activation was quantified within MTL regions of interest identified from each individual’s structural MRI. Despite clinical evidence of a history of decline in memory function, MCI subjects performed similarly to controls on the fMRI memory task (85% and 87%, p=0.6); AD patients performed significantly worse (66%, p<0.005). In the...

The amygdala and associated limbic structures have long been thought of as key for the expression of anxiety and as treatment targets for anxiolytic drugs. Functional neuroimaging may enable the determination of the site of action of anxiolytic drugs in vivo. The purpose of the study was to determine whether lorazepam is able to attenuate the blood-oxygen level dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD-fMRI) activation in the amygdala to a standard emotional face paradigm. Fifteen healthy volunteers participated in this within-subjects repeated measures design. This study was a double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized dose-response study of single-dose placebo, 0.25 mg or 1.0 mg lorazepam administered one hour prior to an MRI session. During the session, the subject completed an emotional face matching paradigm previously shown to elicit amygdala activation. Each MRI session was spaced at least 1 week apart. The key measures was the BOLD-fMRI activation in amygdala, insula, and medial prefr...

Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS) patients exhibit reduced ventilatory responses to CO2 and hypoxia, loss of breathing drive during sleep, and a variety of autonomic nervous system-related aberrations. The breathing deficiencies contribute to intermittent hypoxic exposure. Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) using T2 relaxometry allows for assessment of tissue integrity and is more reliable for this purpose than routine MRI. Proton density (PD) and T2- weighted images were collected on 11 CCHS and 28 age- and gender- matched controls using a 3.0 Tesla scanner; high resolution T1- weighted images were also collected. Pixel- by- pixel T2 maps were generated using the PD and T2-weighted images. Data were analyzed using SPM2 and Matlab-based custom software. High resolution T1-weighted images were normalized to Montreal Neurological Institute space templates, and the resulting parameters were applied to T2 maps; these normalized T2 maps were smoothed. Two-sample t-tests were performed at each vox...

To directly compare functional brain architecture involved in the oculomotor control between macaque monkeys and humans, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects of both species performed equivalent oculomotor tasks. We applied a block design fMRI to identify brain areas activated during visually-guided saccade task compared to fixation baseline, and also used an event-related fMRI to characterize functional laterality of the activated areas. Three monkeys (Macaca fuscata) were scanned in a 4.7 T MRI scanner (Bruker, Germany). The eye positions were monitored with an infrared-sensitive CCD camera. In human experiments, twenty-two healthy subjects were scanned in a 1.5 T MRI scanner. Functional images were analyzed using SPM99. We found multiple bilateral activations related to saccadic eye movements in frontal and parietal cortex in both species. In macaques, activations in frontal cortex were found in the banks of the arcuate sulcus and the principal sulcus, and in the vent...

In human lateral temporal cortex, some regions show specific sensitivity to human motion. Here we examine whether such effects reflect a general biological–nonbiological organizational principle or a process specific to human–agent processing by comparing processing of human, animal, and tool motion in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiment with healthy participants and a voxel-based lesion-symptom mapping (VLSM) study of patients with brain damage (77 stroke patients). The fMRI experiment revealed that in the lateral temporal cortex, the posterior superior temporal sulcus shows a preference for human and animal motion, whereas the middle part of the right superior temporal sulcus/gyrus (mSTS/STG) shows a preference for human and functional tool motion. VLSM analyses also revealed that damage to this right mSTS/STG region led to more severe impairment in the recognition of human and functional tool motion relative to animal motion, indicating the causal role of this brain area in human–a...

A functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was conducted to examine the role of the cerebellum in coordinating sequential typing movements. Subjects were scanned using a 3.0 Tesla MRI system with an echo-planar sequence while they performed sequential key-pressing tasks with their right index finger, all of the fingers of their right hand, or all of the fingers on both hands. We have composed a nonmagnetic (MRI compatible) keyboard system which, after testing for successful performance in the scanner, was employed for recording subjects' behavioral responses. Right index finger key-press responses at a frequency of 3 Hz elicited ipsilateral medial cerebellar activity. This focus of activity moved laterally through the right cerebellar hemisphere when all of the right hand's fingers engaged in sequential typing movements. Sequential typing movements with all fingers from both hands resulted in increasingly lateral activation of the right cerebellum in addition to activation of the corresponding le...

To visualize the activity change between loose-shift and win-stay in the multiple discrimination reversal task, a positron emission tomography (PET) study with event-related and repeated 15O-H2O tracer injections in very short intervals was designed. In this study, the tracer injections were controlled according to the subject's behavioral performances during PET scan, and the minimal injection interval was set 90 seconds. Obtained PET images were re-sampled according to the tissue activity curve, and the re-sampled ones were classified to loose-shift, win-stay and resting based on the behavioral performances recorded simultaneously. The results of statistical parametric mapping (SPM) on the classified images were registered individually to the high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for anatomical determinations. There is no or slight atrophy was observed from the structural MRI of the aged monkey brain. The SPM99 revealed activation of the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), supramarginal g...