Neuroimaging methods

Rauch SL, Whalen PJ, Curran T, Shin LM, Coffey BJ, Savage CR, Mclnerney SC, Baer L, Jenike MA (2001) Probing striato-thalamic function in obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome using neuroimaging methods. Adv Neurol 55 207-224. 

Kim JJ, Crespo-Facorro B, Andreasen NC, O Leary DS, Zhang B, et al. 2000b. An MRI-based parcellation method for the temporal lobe. Neuroimage 11(4) 271-288. 

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. 

While these imaging modalities are sensitive to cell type, the combination of T, T and proton density are not specific to cell type or the type of alteration in normal cell physiology. Improved specificity can be obtained by combining these MRI scans with other types of information including clinical manifestations of disease, other neuroimaging scans and advanced analytical methods to improve diagnostic accuracy. 

Cognitive tests and neuroimaging, such as functional MRI or PET, provide helpful but elaborate tools in the diagnoses of Alzheimer s disease. However, whether these methods will be sensitive enough to assess a halted disease progression in response to drug treatment remains to be shown. 

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