Monday, July 21, 2014

Dopamine-dependent functional connectivity in Parkinson disease: A resting-state diagnosis?

Dopamine-dependent functional connectivity in Parkinson disease: A resting-state diagnosis?
Neurology recent issues

Resting-state fMRI (RS-fMRI) is a noninvasive imaging technique that identifies brain regions exhibiting correlated patterns of spontaneously occurring, slow changes in brain activity that are present at rest.1 This resting brain activity is observed with MRI through changes in blood flow referred to as a blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) signal. RS-fMRI research has revealed a number of networks consistently present in healthy persons and representing specific patterns of synchronous activity.2 One such resting-state network, labeled the basal ganglia network (BGN), is identified in the basal ganglia and thalamus, including the pallidum, putamen, subthalamic nucleus, and substantia nigra, with a projection also to the supplementary motor area.3 The characterization of the BGN opens a potential means to investigate motor-related neuropathologies, in particular Parkinson disease (PD).



Original Article: http://www.neurology.org/cgi/content/short/83/3/202?rss=1

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