Neuroimaging brain function studies

The wide variety of morphological, physiological, and biochemical information available from the multitude of MR techniques, which allow sophisticated combinations of methods to be applied to individual neurological studies. This is one reason that MRI is often the best choice for neuroimaging studies, as the combination of multiple methods in one study can provide a wide array of coregistered information on the effects of disease and experimental therapies on brain function and biochemistry. 

Functional neuroimaging studies suggest that frontal and occipital brain areas are integral to the anxiety response. Patients with panic disorder may have abnormal activation of the parahippocampal region and prefrontal cortex at rest. Panic anxiety is associated with activation of brain stem and basal ganglia regions. GAD patients have an abnormal increase in cortical... 

Functional neuroimaging studies provide strong evidence for dysfunction of the cortical-striatal-thalamocortical (CSTC) circuitry. Symptoms of OCD are associated with increased activity in orbitofrontal cortex in neutral state (Swedo et ah, 1989b Baxter, 1994 Saxena et ah, 1998). Increased activity was also noted in some of these studies in anterior cingulate gyrus, caudate nucleus, and thalamus. Horwitz et al. (1991) found that the pattern of intercorrelations between various brain regions in patients with OCD differed from that of controls. 

There have been recent advances in the understanding in brain structure and function of some childhood psychiatric disorders however, no controlled neuroimaging studies involving aggressive childhood disorders and conduct disorders have been published (Peterson, 1995). Despite the fact that ADHD and conduct disorders are commonly comorbid, existent imaging studies of ADHD are not informative, because typically these studies have excluded youths with conduct disorder. 

Research on the alterations in consciousness caused by sleep has re-centiy been greatly augmented by two sources of evidence that we can scrutinize for instances of complementary enhancement and disruption of function. They are studies of selective brain activation utilizing PET and fMRI neuroimaging techniques, already mentioned in chapters 6 and 7, and the close questioning regarding dreaming of patients who have... 

---