Studies related to neurodegenerative conditions

Mobile Neuroimaging and Mobility in Parkinson's Disease

Thames Hall

Neurodegenerative disorders cause changes to the brain over time. MRI is a powerful tool that has the potential to provide measurements of disease progression and potential treatment effect of disease modifying therapies. Measuring changes, however, can be difficult due to the small size of some brain structures involved. The development of novel MRI scans can aid in the measurement of these changes. MRI scanners with increased field strength (i.e. 7T) improve the resolution of the images but are not available for widespread use. Processing the images to improve quality is a method to create high-resolution images from low-resolution acquisitions. This type of processing has led to more accurate detection of brain structures in MRI data. This study, on healthy human volunteers, aims to compare the data collected at 3T MRI, improved using processing techniques, and compare to high resolution NM-MRI data collected in the same subjects at 7T to validate these processing techniques.

Claustrum

Robarts Research Institute (RRI)

The claustrum is a small, thin and elongated brain area. It has been found to respond to pain, which is a salient perceptual experience (i.e., a feeling that is very noticeable) and requires attention. It remains unclear how the claustrum controls brain networks during attention tasks and or pain. In the current study, we will use high magnetic field (7T) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is a neuroimaging method that measures the activation of the brain with high detail, to evaluate claustrum function in various conditions.