We are creating a group repository at https://github.com/molecular-neuroimaging for sharing our codes and programs with the rest of the brain imaging community.
And if you need assistance with anything please do not hesitate to get in touch!
Gaba interneurons, psychosis and Vincent Van Gogh
“Vincent van Gogh was one of the most influential artists of the Western world, having shaped the post-impressionist art movement by shifting its boundaries forward into abstract expressionism. His distinctive style, which was not valued by the art-buying public during his lifetime, is nowadays one of the most sought after. However, despite the great deal of attention from academic and artistic circles, one important question remains open: was van Gogh’s original style a visual manifestation distinct from his troubled mind, or was it in fact a by-product of an impairment that resulted from the psychiatric illness that marred his entire life?”
In this paper, a team of scientists from our Neuroimaging and Computational modelling groups quantitatively analyze the brushwork of his large production of self-portraits using the image autocorrelation and demonstrate a strong association between the contrasts in the paintings, the occurrence of psychiatric symptoms, and his simultaneous use of absinthe—a strong liquor known to affect gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) alpha receptors. They propose that van Gogh suffered from a defective function of parvalbumin interneurons, which seems likely given his family history of schizophrenia and his addiction to substances associated with GABA action. This could explain the need for the artist to increasingly amplify the contrasts in his brushwork as his disease progressed, as well as his tendency to merge esthetic and personal experiences into a new form of abstraction.
PET partnership UK (PPUK)
Viribus Unitis (Lit. “Union is strength”) is becoming more and more important to tackle the challenges of modern experimental medicine research. For this reason, in collaboration with Cardiff University and other academic institutions across the world we launched the PET Partnership UK (PPUK). PPUK is a platform built to share recourses and expertise for PET imaging. It aims to be an open and democratic community to help scientists working in PET when no local support is available.
For further information visit PPUK website or stay in touch via Twitter
Imaging Glymphatic in MS and Depression
Research on brain glymphatic system and its function continues in Multiple Sclerosis and Depression. Our group has been invited to present the latest findings at the ARSEP annual meeting on “Imaging (G?)lymphatic Drainage in Multiple Sclerosis” (ICM, Paris) and at the NIMA consortium face2face workshop (Academy of Medical Sciences, Wellcome Trust, London). A couple of methodological publications are on their way, with the hope to develop a sensitive and effective imaging method for measuring this system in the living human brain.
Looking for you next job in neuroimaging?
For further information please follow the link. And if you have any question do not hesitate to get in touch!
Brain-inspired podcast
Check it out!!! Prof. Turkheimer has given a very timely podcast on “Weak vs Strong Emergence“, discussing how this concept is relevant to describe a complex system as the brain. From “Turkheimer, FE, Hellyer, P, Kehagia, AA, Expert, P, Lord, L-D, Vohryzek, J, De Faria Dafflon, J, Brammer, M & Leech, R2019, ‘Conflicting Emergences. Weak vs. strong emergence for the modelling of brain function‘, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, vol. 99, pp. 3-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.01.023“
LINKS:
Smartphones as research tools to unveil the secrets of the mind
The fast development of digital technologies in the last decade resulted in the production of small, yet very powerful, portable computers that are now available to more than 2 billion people on earth. Smartphones are swiped, tapped, clicked and typed more than 2000 times a day and their use is now way beyond the initial phone-call and messaging purposes. Smartphones are now used to stay in contact with people, explore new places, for entertainment, and even to order our late-evening meals. Researchers around the world are developing projects that aim to analyse our smartphone usage information, such as location, activity and social contact, to better understand how we behave, think and feel in the moment. This information has the potential to be used to detect mental health issues early, before they become more serious and long-standing.
Complete this survey to help us understand what people think about the use of smartphones as research tools!
Many thanks in advance for your participation.
An idea of Dr Mattia Veronese and Dr Stefania Tognin
NRM2018 – PET Grand Challenge Dataset Released
The NRM2018 PET Grand Challenge dataset has now been fully released. This dataset aims to provide a normative tool to assess the performance and consistency of PET modelling approaches on the same data for which the ground truth is known. Specifically, the challenge aimed at evaluating the performances of different PET analysis tools to identify areas and magnitude of receptor binding changes in a PET radioligand neurotransmission study. Simulated PET data and reference values can be freely downloaded from NITRC portal. Full details on the type of data and simulation procedure are also reported.
Modelling arterial input functions using data acquired with an MR- compatible sampler: a validation study using [18F]GE-179
Are you running automatic arterial blood sampling in a simultaneous PET/MR scanner? Are you struggling to cope with the high-noise data from the blood sampler? If you answered YES to both questions than this research if for you. We extended an existing pipeline of blood modelling (called “MultiBlood”) to the analysis of arterial blood data obtained from MR-compatible samplers. We show that this method can filter out the excess of noise and return blood data time-activity courses comparable with the previous generation of blood samplers.
Credits: Barbara Santangelo, NRM2018, London.
Measuring CSF clearance with 11C-PIB PET
The flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) plays an important role in the clearance of waste from the brain. CSF flow alterations may contribute to the development and/or progression of some neurological diseases. We investigated CSF clearance from the lateral ventricles in Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, multiple sclerosis, and matched healthy controls using dynamic 11C-PIB PET. Compartmental modelling analysis was used to further understand the tracer kinetics in the lateral ventricles and better interpret our PET results. Together, our PET and compartmental modelling results indicate that CSF-mediated clearance is reduced in Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis compared to healthy controls.
Credits: Julia Schubert, NRM2018, London.
