CS02-01 - Imaging the serotonergic system

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 1771-1771
Author(s):  
R. Lanzenberger ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Receptor Subtypes ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Clinical Prognosis ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Important Objective ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques

Biological markers are an important objective in psychiatric research. Molecular and functional neuroimaging techniques are promising tools to provide these biomarkers that may be used for early detection, indication of presence and severity of psychiatric disorders, prediction of treatment response and clinical prognosis. In this lecture, recent results from molecular imaging with positron emission tomography (PET) will be presented, including cerebral quantification of several major players in serotonergic neurotransmission, i.e. the serotonin transporter, the serotonin 1A, 2A, and 1B receptor subtypes, and the degrading enzyme MAOA. Differences between psychiatric disorders will be discussed. Furthermore, pharmacological effects on these targets and brain activation will be shown using PET and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

scholarly journals If neuroimaging is the answer, what is the question?

1999 ◽  
Vol 354 (1387) ◽  
pp. 1283-1294 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Kosslyn
Keyword(s):  
Emission Tomography ◽  
Entire System ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Coarse Scale ◽  
Use Patterns ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques

It is unclear that we will come to a better understanding of mental processes simply by observing which neural loci are activated while subjects perform a task. Rather, I suggest here that it is better to come armed with a question that directs one to design tasks in ways that take advantage of the strengths of neuroimaging techniques (particularly positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging). Here I develop a taxonomy of types of questions that can be easily addressed by such techniques. The first class of questions focuses on how information processing is implemented in the brain; these questions can be posed at a very coarse scale, focusing on the entire system that confers a particular ability, or at increasingly more specific scales, ultimately focusing on individual structures or processes. The second class of questions focuses on specifying when particular processes and structures are invoked; these questions focus on how one can use patterns of activation to infer that specific processes and structures were invoked, and on how processing changes in different circumstances. The use of neuroimaging to address these questions is illustrated with results from experiments on visual cognition, and caveats regarding the logic of inference in each case are noted. Finally, the necessary interplay between neuroimaging and behavioural studies is stressed.

scholarly journals Perceiving actions before they happen: psychological dimensions scaffold neural action prediction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A Thornton ◽  
Diana I Tamir
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Social World ◽  
Action Space ◽  
Action Prediction ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
The Social ◽  
Psychological Dimensions ◽  
The Brain

Abstract The social world buzzes with action. People constantly walk, talk, eat, work, play, snooze and so on. To interact with others successfully, we need to both understand their current actions and predict their future actions. Here we used functional neuroimaging to test the hypothesis that people do both at the same time: when the brain perceives an action, it simultaneously encodes likely future actions. Specifically, we hypothesized that the brain represents perceived actions using a map that encodes which actions will occur next: the six-dimensional Abstraction, Creation, Tradition, Food(-relevance), Animacy and Spiritualism Taxonomy (ACT-FAST) action space. Within this space, the closer two actions are, the more likely they are to precede or follow each other. To test this hypothesis, participants watched a video featuring naturalistic sequences of actions while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. We first use a decoding model to demonstrate that the brain uses ACT-FAST to represent current actions. We then successfully predicted as-yet unseen actions, up to three actions into the future, based on their proximity to the current action’s coordinates in ACT-FAST space. This finding suggests that the brain represents actions using a six-dimensional action space that gives people an automatic glimpse of future actions.

scholarly journals Functional neuroimaging in psychiatry

1999 ◽  
Vol 354 (1387) ◽  
pp. 1359-1370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia H. Y. Fu ◽  
Philip K. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Psychiatric Research ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Powerful Means ◽  
Methodological Approaches

Functional neuroimaging is one of the most powerful means available for investigating the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. In this review, we shall focus on the different ways that it can be employed to this end, describing the major findings in the field in the context of different methodological approaches. We will also discuss practical issues that are particular to studying psychiatric disorders and the potential contribution of functional neuroimaging to future psychiatric research.

scholarly journals Pain Detection and the Privacy of Subjective Experience

2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 433-456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam J. Kolber
Keyword(s):  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Physical Pain ◽  
Medical Evidence ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Pain Symptoms ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques

A neurologist with abdominal pain goes to see a gastroenterologist for treatment. The gastroenterologist asks the neurologist where it hurts. The neurologist replies, “In my head, of course.” Indeed, while we can feel pain throughout much of our bodies, pain signals undergo most of their processing in the brain. Using neuroimaging techniques like functional magnetic resonance imaging (“fMRI”) and positron emission tomography (“PET”), researchers have more precisely identified brain regions that enable us to experience physical pain. Certain regions of the brain's cortex, for example, increase in activation when subjects are exposed to painful stimuli. Furthermore, the amount of activation increases with the intensity of the painful stimulus. These findings suggest that we may be able to gain insight into the amount of pain a particular person is experiencing by non-invasively imaging his brain.Such insight could be particularly valuable in the courtroom where we often have no definitive medical evidence to prove or disprove claims about the existence and extent of pain symptoms.

scholarly journals Diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease. Part 1. The Potential of Functional Neuroimaging

Doctor Ru ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 6-12
Author(s):  
M.R. Sapronova ◽  
◽  
D.V. Dmitrenko ◽  
N.A. Schnaider ◽  
A.A. Molgachev ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Single Photon ◽  
Photon Emission ◽  
Transcranial Sonography ◽  
Emission Computed Tomography ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Neuroimaging Techniques

Objective of the Review: To describe available functional neuroimaging techniques for use in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Key Points: Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder which affects 2-3% of people older than 65 years. The main neuropathological hallmarks of PD are an accumulation of alpha-synuclein aggregates in the cellular cytoplasm and a loss of neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra, leading to dopamine deficiency. Clinical symptoms of the disease appear when the underlying neural impairment is already advanced, which significantly reduces treatment options. Over the two last decades, functional neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and transcranial sonography have increasingly been used for diagnosing PD during patients’ lifetime and understanding the neuropathological mechanisms and compensatory reactions underlying its symptoms, as well as for monitoring the progression of PD. Conclusion: Modern functional neuroimaging techniques not only facilitate differential diagnosis of PD, but also make it possible to detect the disease at its early/preclinical stage. Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, neuroimaging, positron emission tomography, single-photon emission computed tomography, proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy, transcranial sonography.

scholarly journals Dissecting Motor and Cognitive Component Processes of a Finger-Tapping Task With Hybrid Dopamine Positron Emission Tomography and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Grill ◽  
Jarkko Johansson ◽  
Jan Axelsson ◽  
Patrik Brynolfsson ◽  
Lars Nyberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Resonance Imaging ◽  
Dopamine Release ◽  
Emission Tomography ◽  
Finger Tapping ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Cognitive Component ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Motor Component ◽  
Component Processes

Striatal dopamine is involved in facilitation of motor action as well as various cognitive and emotional functions. Positron emission tomography (PET) is the primary imaging method used to investigate dopamine function in humans. Previous PET studies have shown striatal dopamine release during simple finger tapping in both the putamen and the caudate. It is likely that dopamine release in the putamen is related to motor processes while dopamine release in the caudate could signal sustained cognitive component processes of the task, but the poor temporal resolution of PET has hindered firm conclusions. In this study we simultaneously collected [11C]Raclopride PET and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data while participants performed finger tapping, with fMRI being able to isolate activations related to individual tapping events. The results revealed fMRI-PET overlap in the bilateral putamen, which is consistent with a motor component process. Selective PET responses in the caudate, ventral striatum, and right posterior putamen, were also observed but did not overlap with fMRI responses to tapping events, suggesting that these reflect non-motor component processes of finger tapping. Our findings suggest an interplay between motor and non-motor-related dopamine release during simple finger tapping and illustrate the potential of hybrid PET-fMRI in revealing distinct component processes of cognitive functions.

Functional Neuroimaging: A Transformative Tool for Integrative Psychiatry

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abass Alavi ◽  
Andrew B. Newberg
Keyword(s):  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Single Photon ◽  
Cerebral Metabolism ◽  
Photon Emission ◽  
Spect Imaging ◽  
Emission Computed Tomography ◽  
Positron Emission ◽  
Integrative Psychiatry ◽  
Integrative Therapies

Functional neuroimaging with positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) can be highly useful in the evaluation and management of patients with psychiatric disorders. PET and SPECT imaging typically evaluate cerebral metabolism and blood flow, respectively, and can determine patterns associated with different disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. PET and SPECT imaging can also evaluate neurotransmitter changes such as dopamine or serotonin associated with different psychiatric disorders. fMRI is an excellent tool for studying the effects of psychiatric disorders on specific brain processes related to cognition and mood. fMRI activations studies allow researchers to present various stimuli to a subject in order to determine how the brain reacts and whether psychiatric disorders are associated with different brain reactivity patterns. Functional neuroimaging with PET, SPECT, and fMRI can be highly useful in the investigation of the mechanism of action of integrative therapies for psychiatric disorders.

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