Neuroimaging, Behavioral Neurology and Development of 3T MRI projects

神经影像和行为神经学研究。功能和结构神经成像是一种强大的工具，它彻底改变了我们研究大脑在健康和疾病中的高级认知和情感功能的能力。它们在揭示认知和情感加工的个体差异(特征)、脆弱性和对疾病的复原力方面也很有价值。在过去的一年里，我对结构磁共振扫描进行了基于体素的形态测量分析，以探索与长期存在的个性特征相关的神经解剖学变异性，这可能解释了为什么某些人容易患精神疾病、痴呆症或对系统性疾病表现出低效的心理反应机制。具体地说，我发现神经解剖学上的差异与宗教信仰特征(发表在《公共科学图书馆·综合》上)和人格的五个因素(目前正在接受同行审查)有关。最后，我在巴尔的摩老龄化纵向研究(BLSA)参与者中进行了基于体素的形态计量分析，发现在控制饮食、人口统计和心血管风险因素(目前正在同行审查)的情况下，与饮酒相关的额骨痂大小显著减小。这一发现可能有助于解释为什么在酒精中毒(Marchiafava-Bignami病)中，同一区域可能会发生变性和坏死。 开发3T磁共振成像项目。与临床核磁共振成像不同，科学应用通常在临床研究实施之前使用需要重新开发或修改现有研究或商业可用的方案的技术。上述标题下的NIA协议的目的是在NIA 3T MRI设施中开发和改进MRI扫描程序和方法，然后在更大规模的临床研究中实施。在过去的一年里，该协议被用于开发以下应用：用于腹部和大腿脂肪量化的组织分割算法，将用于BLSA评估皮下和内脏脂肪与炎症标志物的关联；用于胸腺脂肪量化的组织分割算法，将用于生长激素补充研究；磷光谱，用于评估运动肌肉的能量消耗，将用于BLSA；功能磁共振成像，用于评估对自我和他人进行个性判断的过程；以及开发静息状态功能磁共振成像和脑光谱。

Neuroimaging and Behavioral Neurology studies. Functional and structural neuroimaging are powerful instruments that have revolutionized our ability to study of the brain's higher cognitive and affective functions in health and disease. They are also valuable in revealing the basis of individual differences (traits) in cognitive and affective processing, vulnerability and resilience to disease. This past year, I performed voxel based morphometry analyses on structural MRI scans to explore the neuroanatomical variability associated with long-standing personality traits, which may explain why certain individuals are vulnerable to psychiatric disease, dementia or show inefficient psychological response mechanisms to systemic diseases. Specifically, I found neuroanatomical differences related to traits of religiosity (published in PloS One)and to the Five Factors of personality (currently under peer review). Finally, I performed a voxel based morphometry analysis in Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA) participants and detected a significant decrease in the frontal corpus callosum size associated with alcohol consumption, controlling for dietary, demographic and cardiovascular risk factors (currently under peer review). This finding may help explain why this same region may develop degeneration and necrosis in alcoholism (Marchiafava-Bignami disease). Development of 3T MRI projects. Unlike clinical MRI imaging, scientific applications often utilize techniques that either requires de-novo development or modification of existing research or commercially available protocols before implementation in clinical studies. The purpose of the NIA protocol under the above title has been the development and refinement of MRI scanning procedures and methods at the NIA 3T MRI facility, before implementation in larger scale clinical research studies. Over this last year, this protocol was used to develop the following applications: a tissue segmentation algorithm for fat quantification in the abdomen and thigh, which will be used in the BLSA to assess the association of subcutaneous and visceral fat with markers of inflammation; a tissue segmentation algorithms for fat quantification in the thymus gland, which will be used in the study of growth hormone supplementation; phosphorus spectroscopy to assess the energy consumption of exercising muscle, which will be used in the BLSA; fMRI to assess the process for making personality judgments about self and others; and development of resting state fMRI and brain spectroscopy.