Dr Richard Morris and colleagues have found neural activity deep in the brain of people with schizophrenia might help explain one of the most stubborn symptoms of the disease.
Using functional magnetic resonance imaging at NeuRA Imaging, the researchers measured fMRI-related BOLD signals to expected and surprising rewards in healthy adults and people with schizophrenia. The ventral striatum is a reward-related region deep inside the brain, and in the healthy brain this region lit up with surprise when an unexpected reward occurred. However in schizophrenia the amount of abnormal activity in the ventral striatum was related to the so-called negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
This is evidence of where symptoms like apathy and poor motivation are coming from, according to Dr Morris. Once we know what part of the brain is causing these stubborn and difficult to treat symptoms, we can start to think about ways to address it.
Disambiguating ventral striatum fMRI-related bold signal during reward prediction in schizophrenia.
Morris RW, Vercammen A, Lenroot R, Moore L, Langton JM, Short B, Kulkarni J, Curtis J, O'Donnell M, Weickert CS, Weickert TW.
Mol Psychiatry (2012)
PubMed Link
A recent study at NeuRA Imaging is the first to recognise a link between hypothalamus degeneration and changes in eating behaviour in patients with behavioural-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD).
Overeating is a commonly reported in patients with bvFTD. Dr Olivier Piguet and colleagues measured hypothalamic volumes from high-resolution MR images and found significant atrophy in the posterior hypothalamus in bvFTD patients with severe eating disturbance.
Postmortem investigations in a separate sample further demonstrated that this atrophy was specifically associated with only one of the two types of protein that commonly accumulate in the brain of bvFTD patients. These findings provide a basis for future therapeutic models for bvFTD patients. PubMed link
Eating and hypothalamus changes in behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia
Piguet, O. Petersen, A.Yin Ka Lam, B.Gabery, S.Murphy, K.Hodges, J.R and Halliday, G.M.
Ann Neurol (2010)
PubMed Link
Researchers at NeuRA have recently published the first paper measuring the mechanical properties of the tongue. Dr Shaokoon Cheng and collaborators in Professor Lynne Bilston's laboratory have provided data which will prove necessary for future studies on patient groups with altered upper airway function.
The study measured the intrinsic shear modulus property of the tongue and soft palate during quiet breathing in healthy volunteers. The measurements were made using the Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) technique at NeuRA Imaging which allows viscoelastic data to be extracted from tissues of interest using specially designed MR-compatible transducers.
Viscoelastic properties of the tongue and soft palate using MR elastography
Cheng S, Gandevia SC, Green M, Sinkus R, Bilston LE
J Biomech (2010)
PubMed Link
Professor Vaughan Macefield of the University of Western Sydney and Doctor Luke Henderson of the University of Sydney have recently published results which show the first recorded peripheral nerve activity while scanning the brain stem.
The study published in Human Brain Mapping with imaging acquired at the NeuRA Imaging Centre, measured muscle sympathetic nerve activity and fMRI. This combination provided real-time imaging of the neural processes responsible for sympathetic nerve activity in humans.
Real-Time Imaging of the Medullary Circuitry Involved in the Generation of Spontaneous Muscle Sympathetic Nerve Activity in Awake Subjects
Vaughan G. Macefield and Luke A. Henderson
Human Brain Mapping 31:539-549 (2010)
PubMed link
