Khaled Abdel-Aziz¹, Bhavana Solanky¹, Marios C. Yiannakas¹, Claudia Angela M. Wheeler-Kingshott², Alan Thompson¹, and Olga Ciccarelli^3
1NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, UCL, London, London, United Kingdom, ²NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL, London, London, United Kingdom, ³NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, London, United Kingdom

Several studies have examined the changes in brain metabolites quantified with MRS as a consequence of normal aging but no such studies have yet been performed in the spinal cord. This study has examined the effect of age on commonly quantified spinal cord metabolites.

Guillaume Duhamel¹, Olivier M. Girard¹, Valentin Prevost¹, Patrick J. Cozzone¹, and Virginie Callot^1
1CRMBM / CNRS 7339, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France

Spinal cord ASL FAIR-EPI perfusion imaging has shown to provide valuable information relative to tissue alteration and recovery in mouse model of cervical spinal cord injury. Numerous rodent models of SCI are developed at the thoracic or lumbar levels and, although FAIR EPI also appeared to be feasible at these levels, the technique suffered from several drawbacks, including low sensitivity and low robustness to motion. We investigated the feasibility of pseudo-continuous ASL (pCASL) combined with single-shot RARE imaging as an alternative to FAIR-EPI, with the objective of benefiting from higher sensitivity, more flexibility and more robustness to motion.

Andreas Hock¹, Bertram J. Wilm¹, Erin L. MacMillan², Roland Kreis², Spyros S. Kollias³, Peter Boesiger¹, and Anke Henning^1,4
1Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ²Dept. of Clinical Research and Institute of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ³Institute of Neuroradiology, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ⁴Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany

Clinical magnetic resonance spectroscopy is rarely applied in the spinal cord due to technical challenges leading to a low spectral quality and thus to a limited number of reliable detectable metabolites. In order to extend the metabolite profile an increase of the spectral quality is necessary, which could be achieved by both: averaging a high number of FIDs and by using a dedicated neck coil. Besides N-acetyl aspartate, creatine, choline and myo-inositol a reliable detection of scyllo-inositol and glutamine/glutamate was possible. Increased myo-inositol/creatine and scyllo-inositol/creatine ratios compared to brain estimates can be observed in the spinal cord.

Henry Szu-Meng Chen^1,2, Nathan Holmes³, Wolfram Tetzlaff^3,4, and Piotr Kozlowski^3,5
1Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ²UBC MRI Research Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ³ICORD, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁴Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁵Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

In this study we looked at the impact of osmolarity on MR measurements of myelin water fraction (MWF) by varying the concentration of the phosphate buffer used in aldehyde fixation of ex vivo rat spinal cord sample and correlating it to the changes in water environment measured by the tunneling electron microscopy (TEM). The results show decreasing MWF measurement with increasing concentration of phosphate buffer due to the effect of osmolarity gradient on the sealed myelin water compartment. The MR MWF and TEM MWF comparison suggests strong correlation between the methods.

Feng Wang^1,2, Ke Li^1,2, Daniel F. Gochberg^1,2, Li Min Chen^1,2, and John C. Gore^1,2
1Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States, ²Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States

Quantitative Magnetization Transfer (qMT) imaging yields relaxation rates and pool size ratios of macromolecular and free water proton pools. However, qMT studies of spinal cord have been limited because of its small size ( ~0.5 cm diameter in squirrel monkeys), field inhomogeneity effects, and motion artifacts. Here we present a pulsed-MT protocol based on Ramani’s model for in vivo studies of the spinal cord of squirrel monkeys at 9.4T. The values of qMT parameters for gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) are in agreement with those of human studies.

Nadia Barakat¹, MJ Mulcahey², John Gaughan¹, Pallav Shah¹, Scott Faro¹, Amer Samdani², Randal Betz², Jürgen Finsterbusch³, and Feroze Mohamed^1
1Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²Shriners Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ³University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Few studies have evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) for spinal cord injury (SCI) but none have involved children. In this study the predictive validity of DTI was evaluated by examining its diagnostic accuracy for pediatric cervical SCI in 35 children. The specificity, sensitivity, receiver operating characteristics area under the curve (ROC AUC) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI) of DTI for the ISNCSCI clinical endpoints and MRI level of injury were calculated. Resampling methods were used to validate the estimates from the final models.

Bretta Russell-Schulz¹, Anna Bley², Arshia Seddigh³, William Regan¹, Gareth John Barker⁴, Naomi Sibtain³, Roger Tam¹, Anthony L. Traboulsee¹, Steven C.R. Williams⁴, Peter A. Brex³, and Shannon H. Kolind^1
1University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ²TU Berlin, Berlin, Germany, ³King's College Hospital, London, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Neuroimaging, King's College London, London, United Kingdom

The goal of this study was to determine whether primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) cervical cord volume (CCV) is related to the MS functional composite score, or its component tests of upper limb motor function (nine-hole peg test), lower limb motor function (timed 25-foot walk) or cognitive function (paced auditory serial addition test). CCV in the PPMS group was significantly lower than for controls, and smaller CCV correlated with longer timed 25-foot walks. CCV was negatively correlated with age in PPMS but not controls.

Christine Laliberté¹, Lindsay S. Cahill¹, Jonathan Bishop¹, Xue Jun Liu², Michael W. Salter², and R. Mark Henkelman^1
1Mouse Imaging Centre, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ²Neuroscience and Mental Health Program, Research Institute, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

A longitudinal quantitative MRI study of the BSCB permeability after peripheral nerve injury in mice

Vladimir S. Fonov¹, Julien Cohen-Adad², and D. Louis Collins^1
1Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, ²Department of Electrical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada

We present a method to build a spinal cord template based on an unbiased average of T2-weighted data from 9 subjects using publicly-available software tools. We propose to use the template to define a standard analysis space for the spinal cord, similar to the Talairach space for brain. We then present an image processing pipeline to demonstrate the usefulness of the template in the evaluation of local volume differences between the spinal cord of one subject and the spinal cord template. Other uses include regional segmentation and VBM analysis.

Novena Rangwala¹, David Hackney¹, and David C. Alsop^1
1Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States

STEAM EPI was used to acquire high b-value diffusion-weighted (DW) images on cervical spinal cord in vivo with diffusion times (Δ) of up to 1000 ms. Mono-exponential and diffusional kurtosis fitting were used to calculate parameters such as ADC and kurtosis. b~14750 s/mm² images show clear distinctions between regions within the cord, and fitted model parameters show increasing consistency (lower standard deviations) with b-range, indicating the advantage of high b-range acquisitions. Tests of statistical significance did not indicate any dependence on Δ, however a dependence of parameters on b-range was observed, suggesting the need for models that better fit the data over extended b-value range.

Paola Valsasina¹, Maria A. Rocca¹, Massimiliano Copetti², Domenico Caputo³, Martina Absinta¹, and Massimo Filippi^1
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ²Department of Biostatistics, IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, San Giovanni Rotondo, FG, Italy, ³Department of Neurology, Scientific Institute Fondazione Don Gnocchi, Milan, Mi, Italy

Aim of this study was to investigate, in 87 patients with multiple sclerosis, the association between cervical cord functional MRI activity during a tactile stimulation and brain and cord structural damage. Patients had an higher cervical cord recruitment than that of 22 matched healthy controls. Cord activity was correlated with brain grey matter atrophy, whereas no correlation was found with cervical cord structural damage. This finding suggests that a loss of supraspinal inhibition secondary to brain injury might contribute to explain the observed functional cord abnormalities in MS.

Moreno Pasin¹, Marios C. Yiannakas¹, Ahmed Toosy², and Claudia Angela M. Wheeler-Kingshott^1
1NMR Research Unit, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, England, United Kingdom, ²Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom

The purpose of this study was to present a protocol to assess stimulus-related activation in the spine using SE-ZOOM-EPI sequence. Four healthy subjects were stimulated at the C6 dermatome on both hands, using an electric rotating brush. The most consistent activity, in ipsilateral grey matter and mostly localized to the posterior horn, was found at C5/C6 vertebral level in each volunteer for right hand stimulation and in three volunteers for left hand stimulation. Significant activity is reported at p<0.01 (uncorrected. Average signal change was calculated. The results support the detection of stimulus-related activation in the spine using our research protocol.

M. Waleed Gaber^1,2, Khushali Kotedia¹, Stephen T.C. Wong^3,4, and Kelvin K. Wong^3,4
1Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, United States, ²Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States, ³Department of Systems Medicine & Bioengineering, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, Houston, TX, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States

In vivo diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of spinal cord is a unique tool to probe the neuronal integrity of the spinal cord in rodent models of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and traumatic spinal cord injury. Due to the small size of spinal cord and respiratory artifact, it is very challenging to reliably study the spinal cord with DTI in rodents. Current techniques exploit the high fiber coherence along the spinal cord and focus mainly on slice selective acquisition technique. To study the subtle neuronal integrity locally, a 3D DTI technique is desirable. In this paper, we present a respiratory-gated segmented 3D echo planar diffusion tensor imaging technique to study the mouse and rat spinal cord in vivo. Preliminary studies showed high quality DTI maps and the data are consistent with literature values.

Yun-An Huang¹, Edzer L. Wu^1,2, Tzi-Dar Chiueh¹, Jyh-Horng Chen^1,2, and Jason Liu^3
1Dept. Electrical engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan, ²Institue of biomedical engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan, ³University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, United States

Wideband MRI is a technique that can either speed up the scan time or increase image resolution by acquiring images of multiple locations simultaneously. Our preliminary result demonstrate the 3D scanning of rat spine by using 4x acceleration (W=4) Wideband MRI technique, which can reduced the scanning from 40 minutes to 10 minutes. We have showed the possibility to complete the 3D spine imaging within 10 minutes which is valuable in clinical study.

Ken E. Sakaie¹, Masaya Takahashi², Koji Sagiyama², Bharath Atthe¹, Osamu Togao², Ivan E. Dimitrov³, Gina Remington⁴, Teresa Frohman⁴, Elliot Frohman⁴, and Robert Fox^5
1Imaging Institute, The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States, ²Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ³Philips Medical Systems, Highland Heights, OH, United States, ⁴Neurology and Neuro-therapeutics, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ⁵Mellen Center, The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States

This work tests the hypothesis that diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) detects injury to the medial longitudinal fasciculus (MLF) in MS patients with internuclear ophthalmoparesis (INO). DTI provides quantitative measures of tissue injury while injury to the MLF in MS provokes well-characterized ocular motor disorder, INO. The tight relationship between the MLF and ocular motor function provides a unique opportunity to refine our capabilities to couple a disease-related pathophysiologic signature with advanced imaging metrics of CNS tissue injury. However, as the MLF is a small pathway, it is unclear if DTI has sufficient sensitivity to detect injury associated with INO.

Torben Schneider¹, Xun Choong², Carolina Kachramanoglou³, David L. Thomas², David Choi⁴, Claudia Angela M. Wheeler-Kingshott¹, and Olga Ciccarelli^2
1NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, ²Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, ³Spinal Repair Unit, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Neurosurgery, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, United Kingdom

Brachial plexus avulsion leads to a completely paralysed and anaesthetic limb. Re-implantation of avulsed ventral roots is an effective treatment that improves motor recovery. Diffusion imaging promises non-invasive markers of disease progression as it is very sensitive to microscopic changes of tissue. We here assess both conventional diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and diffusion q-space-imaging (QSI), which both show good discrimination of pathological changes in the patients’ cord. We further find strong correlation between QSI and DTI parameters and clinical scores of disability, suggesting great potential of diffusion imaging as biomarkers for future management of brachial plexus avulsion treatment strategies.

Yi-Ching Lynn Ho¹, Erhard Næss-Schmidt¹, Jamie Near², and Jakob Udby Blicher^1,3
1Center for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, ²Dept. of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada, ³Hammel Neurorehabilitation & Research, Aarhus University Hospital, Hammel, Denmark

There has yet to be characterization of GABA levels post stroke, even though decreases in cortical inhibition have been found. It is unclear if these results are due to decreased GABA concentrations or receptor activity. Using GABA-edited MRS, we compared post stroke GABA levels in the motor cortex to those in healthy subjects and investigated the possibility that GABA levels can be modulated after two weeks of intensive hand training. We found that GABA levels after stroke were diminished compared to healthy subjects, but it appears possible to normalize these GABA levels, as well as hand function with therapy.

Thomas W. Okell¹, Meritxell Garcia², Michael A. Chappell^1,3, James V. Byrne⁴, and Peter Jezzard^1
1FMRIB Centre, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ²Division of Diagnostic & Interventional Neuroradiology, Department of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University of Basel Hospital, Basel, Switzerland, ³IBME, Department of Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁴Nuffield Department of Surgery, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) can be treated by endovascular embolization, but it is crucial to have knowledge of the arterial supply to the lesion prior to treatment. In this study we applied a 2D dynamic angiographic technique based on vessel-encoded pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (VEPCASL) to non-invasively visualize the flow patterns arising from the main feeding arteries to AVMs. Each transverse, coronal and sagittal time-resolved data set took about four minutes to acquire. Good image quality and vessel-selectivity was observed in all five patients. We hope this will become a useful tool for treatment planning in AVM patients.

Jinnan Wang¹, Xihai Zhao², Kiyofumi Yamada³, Le He², Xiping Gong⁴, Peter Börnert⁵, and Chun Yuan^6
1Philips Research North America, Briarcliff Manor, NY, United States, ²Tsinghua University, Beijing, Beijing, China, ³University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, ⁴Tiantan Hospital, Beijing, Beijing, China, ⁵Philips Research Laboratory, Hamburg, N.A., Germany, ⁶Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States

Intracranial artery disease (IAD) is an important but often overlooked contributor to the onset of stroke. Besides the commonly inspected luminal stenosis, intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH), as indicated by studies based on carotid artery lesions, has also been associated with increased lesion progression rate and the incidence rate of clinical events. In this study, we will validate a newly optimized Simultaneous Non-contrast Angiography and intraPlaque hemorrhage (SNAP) technique suitable for joint stenosis and IPH lesion detection for IAD patients.

Ye Qiao¹, Steve R. Zeiler², Saeedeh Mirbagheri¹, Richard Leigh², Victor Urrutia², Robert Wityk², and Bruce A. Wasserman^1
1Radiology, Johns Hopkins Univeristy, Baltimore, Maryland, United States, ²Neurology, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

The presence of intracranial vascular disease is highly predictive of stroke. We sought to characterize intracranial plaque inflammation in vivo using 3D high-resolution contrast-enhanced black blood MRI imaging and investigate its relation to cerebrovascular ischemic events.

Hélène Raoult^1,2, Jean-Yves Gauvrit^1,2, Vincent Le Couls³, Peter Schmitt⁴, and Elise Bannier^2
1Neuroradiology, University Hospital, Rennes, France, ²Unité VISAGES U746 INSERM-INRIA, IRISA UMR CNRS 6074, University of Rennes, Rennes, France, ³Siemens Healthcare, Imaging and Therapy, Saint Denis, France, ⁴Siemens AG, MR Application & Workflow Development, Erlangen, Germany

Our study assesses the feasibility and quality of non-gated non-contrast-enhanced MRA (NCE MRA) carotid imaging using inversion-prepared bSSFP in 16 volunteers. The sequence offers high-quality images with bright intravascular signal, and results were equivalent or superior to those of standard TOF MRA. Non-gated NCE MRA allows high-quality carotid imaging over a larger field of view with a shorter acquisition time than TOF.

XIN PU^1,2, Chun Yuan¹, Hunter R. Underhill¹, and Zhan Ming Fan^2
1Vascular Imaging Lab, Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, Beijing, China

It has been well known that intraplaque hemorrhage and fibrous cap rupture are the most critical features of carotid plaque instability. Carotid atherosclerotic score(CAS) was built to stratify the plaque severity.However,CAS assessment requires a relatively long time for the review process,which is limit the application in clinical practice. This study sought to find a simple, fast approach to evaluate the CAS and stratify the severity of carotid plaque in clinic.

Maria del Rosario Lopez Gonzalez¹, Sin Yee Foo², William M. Holmes³, Willie Stewart⁴, George Welch⁵, Barrie Condon⁶, Keith W. Muir¹, and Kirsten Forbes^7
1Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, ²School of Medicine, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, ³GEMRIC, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Neuropathology, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, ⁵Vascular Surgery, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, ⁶MRI, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, ⁷Institute of Neurological Sciences, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Carotid plaque MR imaging was used to assess composition and structure of atherosclerotic plaque. The method involved the validation of in-vivo (3T) and ultra-high resolution ex-vivo (7T) MRI and histopathological examination in a series of patients. Patients all presented with acute cerebral ischaemic, within four weeks before MRI scanning. Patients underwent endarterectomy and specimens were scanned at 7T. Atherorosclerotic plaque segmentation was carried out using a combination of four/three (3T/7T) MR contrast weighting images.

Kei Tsukamoto¹, Takayuki Masui¹, Motoyuki Katayama¹, Kimihiko Sato¹, Kazuma Terauchi¹, Kenichi Mizuki¹, Masayoshi Sugimura¹, Harumi Sakahara², Naoyuki Takei³, and Hiroyuki Kabasawa^3
1Radiology, Seirei Hamamatsu general hospital, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan, ²radiology, Hamamatsu university school of medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan, ³GE Healthcare Japan, hino, Tokyu, Japan

An investigational version of inflow inversion recovery fast spin echo (IFIR-FSE) is the technique of non-contrast enhanced MR angiography (NC MRA) based on inflow effect during inversion time of inversion recovery. We investigated usefulness in assessment of supraaortic arteries of NC MRA with IFIR-FSE in comparison of NC MRA with 3D time of flight and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRA in twenty patients. NC MRA with IFIR-FSE could visualize large areas of the supraaortic arteries with good image quality and showed high negative predict value for detection of vascular stenoses. This technique can be used as a screening method in this area.

Gisela E. Hagberg¹, Petros Martirosian², Jonas Bause³, Gunamony Shajan³, Uwe Klose⁴, and Klaus Scheffler^1,3
1Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany, ²Section of Experimental Radiology, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany,³High-field Magnetic Resonance, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tuebingen, Germany, ⁴Diagnostic and interventional Neuroradiology, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

At ultra-high magnetic field strengths ToF benefits from long tissue T₁ times that leads to a suppressed background. On the other hand, SAR restrictions impose an upper limit on the actual flip angle that can be used. By increasing the pulse duration the SAR is reduced, enabling the use of optimal flip angles. The venous signal can be removed without need for additional suppression pulses, with only minor loss in image contrast, by prolonging TE. In conclusion, ToF can be performed at 9.4T using state-of-the-art methodology.

Pauline Roca¹, Myriam Edjlali¹, Cécile Rabrait², Kevin M. Johnson³, Yijing Wu³, Oliver Wieben^3,4, Olivier Naggara¹, Jean-François Meder¹, Patrick Turski⁴, and Catherine Oppenheim^1
1Department of Neuroradiology, Sainte-Anne Hospital, Paris, France, ²GE Healthcare, Vélizy, France, ³Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

We present a virtual catheter-based like post-processing procedure applied to 4D Flow MR Imaging to obtain a non-invasive MR complete characterization of brain vascular malformations. We compared this MR selective flow-tracking cartography procedure to catheter-based cerebral intra-arterial digital subtraction angiography (DSA). This technique was successfully performed in 10 patients with brain arteriovenous malformations or dural arteriovenous fistulas. There was a high agreement between DSA and MR cartography in the definition of the main feeding arteries and draining veins. MR selective flow-tracking cartography of fistulas allowed to obtain a Cognard MR classification consistent with DSA. These results suggest that MR selective cartography is a promising alternative to DSA in the diagnosis and follow-up of brain vascular malformations.

Meritxell Garcia^1,2, Thomas W. Okell³, Monika Gloor⁴, Michael A. Chappell^3,5, Peter Jezzard³, Oliver Bieri⁴, and James V. Byrne^2
1Division of Diagnostic & Interventional Neuroradiology, Department of Radiology, Clinic of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University of Basel Hospital, Basel, Switzerland, ²Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences and Department of Neuroradiology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ³Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁴Division of Radiological Physics, Department of Medical Radiology, University of Basel Hospital, Basel, Switzerland, ⁵Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Engineering, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

The role of Flat Panel Detector-CT (FPD-CT), a novel and fast technique able to provide parenchymal blood volume data, was analysed in arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). FPD-CT perfusion was compared to Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast MRI (DSC-MRI) and Arterial Spin Labelling (ASL). Contrary to previous ischaemia studies, FPD-CT values correlated better with CBF than with CBV. This can be explained by the early appearance of contrast agent in the superior sagittal sinus, generally used as the trigger time point for data acquisition, due to the high-flow shunting effect in AVMs. This challenges the utility of FPD-CT for reliable perfusion analysis in AVMs.

Bum-soo Kim¹, Jinhee Jang¹, Hyun Seok Choi¹, So-Lyung Jung¹, and Kook-Jin Ahn^1
1Department of Radiology, Seoul St.Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Seoul, Korea

Venous reflux flow in internal jugular vein (IJV), sigmoid/transverse sinuses (SS/TS), and inferior petrosal sinus (IPS) on the brain and neck 3D TOF MRA were evaluated from 3475 patients. Fifty-five patients (1.6%) showed reflux flow, all in the left side, and more frequent in female than in male. Mean age of patients with reflux flow was older than those without reflux flow. It was more frequent on SS/TS than on IPS. Venous reflux flows in IJV, SS/TS and IPS on TOF MRA could be an alarm for undesirable candidate for contrast injection on left side for contrast enhanced imaging study.

Florence Colliez¹, Caroline Vandeputte², Uwe Himmelreich³, Thierry Duprez⁴, Benedicte Jordan⁵, Bernard Gallez¹, and Julie Magat^5
1Louvain Drug Research Institute, Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Research Group, University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium, ²Biomedical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit, KUL, Leuven, Belgium, ³Biomedical Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Unit, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ⁴Radiology and Medical Imaging, St. Luc hospital, Institute of Neuroscience, UCL, Brussels, Belgium, ⁵Louvain Drug Research Institute, Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Research Group, UCL, Brussels, Belgium

There is a critical need for methods able to monitor dynamically and noninvasively brain oxygenation in clinical practice. Variations in T1 and T2* are potentially valuable magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tools to quantify changes in tissue oxygenation. T1 is sensitive to dissolved oxygen which acts as a T1-shortening paramagnetic contrast agent. However, this technique lacks of sensitivity. The aim of the current work was to apply the MOBILE technique (for Mapping of Oxygen By Imaging Lipids relaxation Enhancement) to map variations in oxygenation based on the changes in the relaxation properties of the tissue lipids, by exploiting the higher solubility of oxygen in lipids than in water on a photothrombic stroke model and clinical strokes.

Hajime Tamura¹, Masanobu Ibaraki², Kazuhiro Nakamura², Hideto Toyoshima², Keisuke Matsubara², and Toshibumi Kinoshita^2
1Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan, ²Radiology, Akita Research Institute for Brain and Blood Vessels, Akita, Akita, Japan

We aimed to validate the ability of BOLD contrast imaging with mild oxygen challenge to estimate severity of ischemia in patient with unilateral chronic steno-occlusive disease of the internal carotid or middle cerebral artery. For the validation, the BOLD contrast with hyperoxia was compared with the product of deoxyhemoglobin concentration ([dHb]) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) obtained by ¹⁵O PET study. A significant correlation between the lesional-contralateral (LC) difference in BOLD contrast and LC difference in the quantity [dHb]^1.5CBV obtained from PET data was observed. Hyperoxic BOLD contrast imaging may be usefl to estimate the severity of ischemia in chronic arterial steno-occlusive disease.

Jonathan Goodwin¹, Kohsuke Kudo¹, Yutaka Shinohe², Ikuko Uwano¹, Fumio Yamashita¹, Yutaka Matsumura¹, Tsuyoshi Metoki¹, Kuniaki Ogasawara³, Akira Ogawa³, and Makoto Sasaki^1
1Division of Ultrahigh Field MRI, Iwate Medical University, Yahaba, Iwate, Japan, ²Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Iwate Medical University, Morioka, Iwate, Japan, ³Neurosurgery, Iwate Medical University, Morioka, Iwate, Japan

Oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) is considered to be an important indicator of cerebrovascular health. Accurate, non-invasive measurement of OEF has potential benefit for a number of clinical conditions, however currently positron emission tomography (PET) remains the gold standard. In this work we demonstrate the viability of a recently developed, susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) technique for mapping OEF change in the brain. Through repeated phase imaging during both Propofol and Midazolam sedation and sedation recovery, a significant global reduction was measured during Midazolam sedation (p<0.018), demonstrating the sensitivity of the technique to moderate perturbation of OEF in the brain.

Sarah Al-Bachari¹, Laura Parkes², Rishma Vidyasagar², Martha Hanby³, Ira Leroi⁴, and Hedley Emsley^3
1School of Cancer and Imaging Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, ²University of Manchester, Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom, ³Neurology, Royal Preston Hospital, Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom, ⁴Psychiatry, University of Manchester, Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

Idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (IPD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder, yet treatment remains purely symptomatic. Recent research has implicated cerebrovascular mechanisms in the neurodegenerative process, yet the role in IPD is poorly understood. To investigate cerebrovascular dysfunction ASL MRI techniques were used to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) and arrival time (aT), alongside structural markers of cerebrovascular disease, using 3Tesla MRI. Results have revealed focal regions of CBF increase in thalamus and areas of hypoperfusion in the posterior cortical regions, in addition there is a widespread increase in aT in patients compared to controls, implicating CV dysfunction in IPD.

Kay Jann¹, Manuela Wapp², Frauke Kellner-Weldon², Martinus Hauf², Yuliya Burren², Regula Everts^2,3, Marwan El-Koussy², Patrik Michel⁴, Gerhard Schroth², and Andrea Federspiel^1
1Dept. of Psychiatric Neurophysiology, University Hospital of Psychiatry / University of Bern, Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ²Institut of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University of Bern / Inselspital, Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ³Division of Neuropediatrics, Children's University Hospital / Inselspital, Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ⁴Department of Neurology, University Hospital Lausanne, Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

In carotid artery disease (CAD) information about cerebral blood flow identifies areas with reduced perfusion due to the flow restriction of a feeding vessel. Moreover the cerebro vascular reactivity (CVR) is often reduced and is suggested to be the physiological basis for observed cognitive deficits in CAD. In this study we found significant reduction of CVR in the anterior watershed area on the stenotic side. In addition, significant negative correlations between AW-CVR on the stenotic side and the neuropsychological performance were found in the domain of verbal working memoryas well as for executive functions confounding the above hypothesis.

Didem Aksoy^1,2, Ryan W. Snider^1,2, Jonathan Kleinman^1,2, Michael Mlynash^1,2, Nancy J. Fischbein³, Roland Bammer³, Matus Straka³, Irina Eyngorn^1,2, Alisa Gean⁴, Chitra Venkat^1,2, Anna K. Finley Caulfield^1,2, and Christine Wijman^1,2
1Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States, ²Stanford Neurocritical Care Program, Stanford Stroke Center, Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA, United States, ³Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States

In this study, we examined whether large blood pressure reductions are associated with hypoperfusion and ischemia in the perihematomal region in acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) patients. Perfusion and diffusion weighted imaging were performed within 24 hours of ICH onset. Hourly blood pressures were recorded from hospital admission to MRI. Hypoperfusion and presence of diffusion lesions in the perihematomal region were found to be associated with the absolute and percent degree of reduction from admission systolic blood pressure to mean treated systolic blood pressure.

Pin-Hsun Huang¹, Tsong-Hai Lee², Feng-Xian Yan¹, Ho-Fai Wong³, and Ho-Ling Liu^1,3
1Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ²Neurology and Stroke Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ³Medical Image and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

This study aimed to investigate the cerebral hemodynamic changes in patients with carotid stenosis and the utility of DSC-MRI indices for predicting hyper-perfusion phenomenon after carotid angioplasty with stenting (CAS).Fifty-four patients with unilateral internal carotid artery stenosis received DSC-MRI before and one-week after CAS. The CBF, TTP, MTT and Tmax were assessed and correlated with perfusion change after CAS. This study found that perfusion change was negatively correlated with ipsilateral CBF, and positively correlated with ipsilateral Tmax and MTT. Patients with hyper-perfusion after CAS had significantly longer pre-CAS ipsilateral Tmax and MTT as comparing to the other patients.

Christoph Seeger^1,2, Alexander Brost¹, Mircea C. Dobre¹, Nancy J. Fischbein¹, Zhaoying Han¹, Julian R. Maclaren¹, Sjoerd B. Vos^1,3, Joachim Hornegger², and Roland Bammer^1
1Center for Quantitative Neuroimaging, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ²Pattern Recognition Lab, Department of Computer Science, Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany, ³Image Sciences Institute, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands

We present a fully automatic post-processing method for 3D time-of-flight MR Angiograms. The method produces maximum intensity projections of pre-specified regions of interest that are warped to a patient using the non-rigid deformation field obtained from registration. We evaluated the method using a three-point Likert scale to proof that it performs at least as good as the current manual clinical method.

Adam M. Winchell^1,2, Brian Taylor¹, Paul Grundlehner¹, Ralf B. Loeffler¹, Jane Hankins³, Winfred Wang³, Kathleen Helton¹, and Claudia M. Hillenbrand^1
1Radiological Sciences, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States, ²Biomedical Engineering, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN, United States,³Hematology, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, United States

One of the most devastating complications in children with sickle cell disease is stroke. A hessian-based vessel segmentation algorithm was used on SWI to quantify the venous contrast in patients and normal controls. The conspicuity of venous contrast in sickle cell disease is qualitatively less than in controls and shows a significant quantitative decrease. Quantitative measures of venous contrast inversely correlated with basilar tortuosity.

Tae Kim¹ and Seong-Gi Kim^1
1University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

We quantified cerebral arterial blood volume (CBVa) and blood flow (CBF) in eight hypertensive (SHR) and nine normotensive (WKY) rats using magnetization transfer-varied arterial spin labeling technique. Regional CBVa values from SHR were generally smaller than those from WKY, while CBF values were no difference, indicating CBVa is a sensitive biomarker for hypertension. Especially, hippocampus has significantly lower CBVa values for SHR than WKY, indicating that its vascular remodeling and adaption may lead to dementia.

John Anthony Butman^1,2, Ningzhi Li², Wen-Tung Wang², David Joy², and Dzung Pham^2,3
1Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, ²Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, Bethesda, MD, United States, ³Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, United States

An artifact which mimics the appearance of intracranial microhemorrhage arising from 2D homodyne SWI processing of gradient echo images is described.

Burkhard Mädler¹, Dariusch Reza Hadizadeh^2,3, and Jürgen Gieseke^2,4
1Neurosurgery, University Bonn - Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany, ²Radiology, University Bonn - Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany, ³Neuroradiology, University Bonn - Medical Centre, Bonn, Germany, ⁴Philips Healthcare, Best, Netherlands

Several studies have utilized IVIM for various clinical applications in the abdomen as well as for animal experiments. However, studies in the human brain are rare and without further consensus about its clinical value, application and comparison to conventional perfusion techniques possibly due to the complex diffusion properties in the nervous system and the inherent low SNR. We tested performance and validity of a novel semi-continuous multi-exponential (PFG-diffusion signal analysis for the detection and quantification of vascular perfusion in the brain. Classical chi-squared multi-exponential fitting algorithms are susceptible to fail without sufficient SNR. We show that regularized NNLS-techniques have better performance on the estimates of IVIM parameters from noisy data and might encourage new attempts of IVIM-based methods for the brain.

Zhigang Min^1,2, Chen Niu¹, and Ming Zhang^1
1Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ²Radiology, Yi'xing Hospital Affiliated to Jiangsu University, Yi'xing, Jiangsu, China

Due to the infiltration of tumor cells, the axons and myelin were destroyed. tumor-infiltrating edema has greater radial diffusivities than pure vasogenic edema. But the direct comparisons of ¦Ë¡Í will be influenced by the degree of edema and can not reveal the diffusion characteristics induced by damaged axons and myelin. We compared the relationships of ¦Ë¡Î and ¦Ë¡Í in pure vasogenic edema and tumor-infiltrating edema and found the significant different between the two types of edema. RC¦Ë¡Î-¦Ë¡Í showed more effective than other metrics in discriminating tumor-infiltrated edema from pure vasogenic edema.

Chandler Sours^1,2, Jiachen Zhuo¹, Steven Roys¹, and Rao P. Gullapalli^1,2
1Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Program In Neuroscience, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Baltimore, MD, United States

Synopsis

Megha Vasavada¹, Jian-Li Wang¹, Xiaoyu Sun¹, Sarah Ryan¹, Christopher Weitekamp¹, Prasanna Karunanayaka¹, and Qing Yang^1
1Penn State University, Hershey, Pennsylvania, United States

Olfactory deficits are known to occur in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and early AD. In this work, we performed concurrent measurements of the volumes and olfactory activations of the primary olfactory cortex (POC) and hippocampus, and demonstrated that the POC is clearly involved in early AD functionally and pathologically.

Melissa A. Prah¹, Eric S. Paulson², Dominique L. Jennings³, Elizabeth R. Gerstner⁴, Tracy T. Batchelor⁴, Steven M. Stufflebeam³, and Kathleen M. Schmainda^1,5
1Radiology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States, ²Radiation Oncology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States, ³Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁴Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ⁵Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States

This study compares the repeatability of standardized and normalized rCBV estimates, across five separate post-processing methods. Overall, results showed that standardized rCBV estimates offer less variablity than normalized rCBV estimates.

Ji-Young Kim¹, Seong-Uk Jin², Jee-Hye Seo², Jang Woo Park², Jongsu Baek², Moon Han², Kyung-Eun Jang², Young-Hwan Lee*³, and Yongmin Chang^4,5
1Medical Science, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea, ²Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, ³Radiology, Catholic University Medical Center, Daegu, Korea, ⁴Radiology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, ⁵Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Molecular Medicine, Daegu, Korea

Poststroke depression (PSD) is not only an important clinical issue as it will potentially affect the 20% to 70% of stroke survivors but also may provide a unique window into the pathophysiology of depression. While previous neuroimaging studies have mostly focused to identify a possible relationship between location of the brain damage and a risk for PSD, no studies have directly examined the intrinsic functional connectivity within depression-related neural network in PSD patients. In the present study, we investigate the possible alteration in functional connectivity (FC) within salient network (SN) associated with PSD using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI). Our FC matrix analysis of SN has revealed that functional connectivity patterns of brain regions within SN in PSD patients were extensively altered compared to healthy controls. Specifically, the negative correlations between limbic and dorsal frontal regions in healthy controls turned into positive correlations in PSD patients. The breakdown of negative correlation between limbic and dorsal frontal regions in PSD patients therefore suggests that the inhibitory process to prevent prolonged negative emotion seems to be impaired in PSD patients.

Jewell B. Thomas¹, Matthew R. Brier^1,2, and Beau M. Ances^1
1Department of Neurology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States, ²Medical Scientist Training Program, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, United States

This abstract demonstrates a useful application of graph theory analysis techniques for characterizing the independent effects of HIV and aging on brain function.

Abigail Livny-Ezer^1,2, Mark Weiser^3,4, Tammar Kushnir^2,4, Sagi Harnof⁵, Dardo Tomasi^6,7, Chen Hoffman², and Anat Biegon^7,8
1J. Sagol Neuroscience Center, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, ²Diagnostic Imaging Dept., Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, ³Dept. of Psychiatry, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, ⁴Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel, ⁵Dept. of Neurosurgery, Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel, ⁶National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, ⁷Medical Dept., Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY, United States, ⁸Dept. of Neurology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States

Survivors of Traumatic brain injury (TBI) suffer from cognitive deficits. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of injury severity on patterns of brain activation during a working memory task with fMRI. Twelve mild, 10 moderate-severe patients and 19 controls performed an N-back task for letters. Activations in the low memory load did not appear to be related to injury severity. High memory load activated additional areas in the TBI groups compared to controls and was dependent on injury severity. In addition, TBI patients presented a different pattern of functional connectivity mapping in resting-state compared to controls.

Tianye Zhai^1,2, Tianye Zhai³, Chunming Xie^1,2, Zheng Yang¹, and Shi-Jiang Li^2
1Center of Brain and Cognition, Beijing Institute of Basic Medical Science, Beijing, China, ²Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States,³Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China

Neurobiological and neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), a major node for decision making, is crucial in drug addiction. 1,2 However, little is known about the role of the vmPFC network and its relation to drug-seeking behaviors, such as impulsivity in addiction. In this study, we utilized resting-state functional connectivity fMRI (R-fMRI) to investigate the alteration of the vmPFC network and its relationship to impulsivity in abstinent heroin dependent subjects (HD) and control nondrug users (CN).

Evelyn Lake¹, Rafal Janik¹, Joydeep Chaudhuri¹, Greg J. Stanisz¹, and Bojana Stefanovic^1
1Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Within a well established preclinical model of injury, we use functional MRI and behavioural testing to assess the effect of well-timed, low dose gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) antagonism on recovery in the chronic stage of ischemic stroke recovery. During the weeks following injury, we have observed significantly more behavioural recovery in GABA antagonist treated animals than that shown by controls. In addition, we have observed GABA antagonist treatment to result in the partial normalization of the ipsi-to-contra-lesional perfusion response ratio. Further studies will focus on how this novel treatment strategy may promote neurovascular remodelling over long therapeutic time windows.

Masaya Misaki¹, Vadim Zotev¹, Raquel Phillips¹, Kymberly D. Young¹, Han Yuan¹, Jonathan Savitz^1,2, Wayne C. Drevets¹, and Jerzy Bodurka^1,3
1Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States, ²Tulsa School of Community Medicine, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, United States, ³College of Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, OK, United States

To study abnormalities from major depressive disorder (MDD) in resting-state brain activity, we compared the temporal standard deviation (tSD) of resting-state BOLD time course signals. The tSD reflects both frequency and amplitude of an individual brain region’s activity. Comparing tSDs of MDD and HC subjects revealed higher temporal variability of resting-state BOLD signal in MDD versus HC in multiple brain regions including cerebellum, cingulate cortex, thalamus, and insula, while no brain regions showed lower tSD in MDD versus HC. The result suggests that in MDD subjects these brain regions had more frequent and larger activity change in resting-state.

Raquel Phillips¹, Kymberly Young¹, Vadim Zotev¹, Masaya Misaki¹, Han Yuan¹, Wayne C. Drevets¹, and Jerzy Bodurka^1,2
1Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States, ²College of Engineering, The University of Oklahoma, Tulsa, OK, United States

We aim to develop novel and non-invasive treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), a disorder associated with the deregulation of brain emotional circuitry. Research has shown that the hemodynamic response of the amygdala is attenuated to positive stimuli in MDD and that this response normalizes with remission. We show that individuals with MDD are able to use real-time fMRI neurofeedback to enhance the hemodynamic response of the left amygdala (LA) to positive stimuli. We also found an association between the ability to regulate the LA and reductions in depression ratings, as well as improvements in happiness ratings.

Armin Iraji¹, Valerie Mika², Jie Yang², Annalise Rahman², Grace Ma², Robert Welch², Randall Benson², Scott Millis², Hamid Soltanian-Zadeh³, Ewart Mark Haacke², and Zhifeng Kou^2
1Biomedical Engineering, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, United States, ²Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, United States, ³University of Tehran, Tehran, Tehran, Iran

mTBI affects over 1 million emergency visits in the United States each year. Most of them have negative findings in clinical imaging in emergency department. However, attention and memory deficits are wide-spread symptoms in mTBI patients. We hypothesize that mTBI is associated with alterations in the activities in PCC and functional connectivity at rest. Results demonstrate that a) mTBI patients have alterations in their resting-state functional connectivity in PCC and related areas at the acute stage, and b) this functional connectivity change may reflect their memory symptoms. This work could have potential applications in clinical diagnosis of mTBI.

Wataru Sako¹, An Vo¹, Aziz M. Ulug¹, and David Eidelberg^1
1Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, NY, United States

Dystonia is characterized by the involuntary concomitant contraction of agonist and antagonist muscles resulting in repetitive movements and abnormal posture. Causative gene mutation in TOR1A gene is named as DYT1. In contrast to identification of gene mutations, no apparent structural abnormalities of primary dystonia were found in conventional magnetic resonance imaging or autopsy. Nonetheless, novel abnormalities were detected in various types of dystonia by functional imaging including positron emission tomography and diffusion tensor imaging. Speed-dependent motion perception task mainly consists of two types of movement: natural condition; unnatural condition. We applied functional MRI to dystonia patients during motion perception task in order to clarify the possible abnormality in sensory processing.

Bing Zhang¹, Ming Li¹, Xin Zhang¹, Fei Chen¹, Huiting Wang¹, Fang Zhang², Jiange Zhang², Yun Xu³, and Bin Zhu^1
1Department of Radiology, The Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, ²Department of biomedical engineering, Shanghai Jiao-tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, Shanghai, China, ³Neurology of Radiology, The Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital of Nanjing University Medical School, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

Alteration pattern of gray matter and small-world networks in the human brain revealed by quantitative water diffusivity from MRI.

Harald Kugel¹, Christian Lindner², Udo Dannlowski^2,3, Kirsten Walhöfer², Maike Roediger², Birgit Maisch⁴, Jochen Bauer², Patricia Ohrmann², Rebekka Lencer², Pienie Zwitserlood⁵, Anette Kersting⁶, Walter Heindel¹, Volker Arolt², and Thomas Suslow^6
1Dept. of Clinical Radiology, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany, ²Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany, ³Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Marburg, HE, Germany, ⁴Klinik am Schlossgarten Duelmen, Duelmen, NRW, Germany, ⁵Dept. of Psychology, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany, ⁶Dept. of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, SN, Germany

This fMRI study investigates the role of the amygdala in emotional processing in schizophrenia patients. Previous studies have demonstrated amygdala hypoactivation in patients, but also amygdala hyperactivation with paradigms eliciting automatic affect processing. Furthermore, hyperactivation was related to symptoms of affective flattening, i.e. lack of emotional reactivity. Here amygdala responsivity to threat-related facial expression was studied as function of automatic versus controlled emotion processing. Our findings suggest that amygdala hyperresponsivity to unmasked fearful faces might be a functional marker of schizophrenia, while amygdala hyperresponsivity to masked fearful faces might be a specific characteristic of patients with affective flattening.

René M.H. Besseling¹, Jacobus Jansen², Geke Overvliet³, Sylvie J. van der Kruijs⁴, Johannes Vles³, Saskia Ebus⁴, Paul A.M. Hofman², Anton de Louw⁴, Albert P. Aldenkamp⁴, and Walter H. Backes^2
1Radiology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands, ²Radiology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands, ³Neurology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands, ⁴Epilepsy Centre Kempenhaeghe, Heeze, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands

Rolandic epilepsy (RE) has been associated with language impairment, the cerebral mechanism of which is unknown. Independent component analysis of resting-state fMRI data was used to identify the functional network involving the pre- and postcentral gyri, i.e. the rolandic cortex (from which the seizures originate). Compared to controls, this network showed reduced connectivity with the left inferior frontal gyrus in a region of interest defined from word-generation task fMRI (p=0.011). This represents an abnormality in a functional network involving the rolandic cortex which provides a substrate for language impairment in RE.

Maryam Abaei¹, Stefan T. Schwarz¹, Nara Dashdorj¹, Nin Bajaj², and Dorothee P. Auer^1
1Radiological & Imaging Sciences, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, ²Neurology, University Hospitals of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

Parkinson's Disease, Resting State, fMRI, Functional Connectivity, Dorsal Attention Network,

Hsin-Yun Lee¹, Cing-Sui Chiang¹, Yi-ting Wan¹, Yee-Pay Wuang¹, Yen-Yu Chiu², and Sharon Chia-Ju Chen Chen^1
1Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Taiwan, ²KaohsiungMedical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Taiwan

In this study, we used behavioral task to assess the differences of visual perception function between Down Syndrome (DS) children and normal children. Results showed that DS children increased activation in the visual-perceptual network and also induced more diffused brain activation.

Blessy Mathew¹, Evan Goldstein², Mark J. Lowe¹, and Angela Ciccia^3
1Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States, ²Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, United States, ³Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, United States

In this study we focus on the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on social cognition, attention, memory, and executive functioning in adolescents. We used fMRI to identify patterns of activation in adolescents with and without TBI during a social cognitive task, and to correlate specific brain regions with performance on memory measures. We observed significant differences in whole brain activated voxels in questions requiring least social inference in controls with patients (requiring least social inference state (p=0.032), and most difficult (p=0.017)). In a whole brain correlation map with memory index (p<0.025), TBI patients recruited different regions than controls.

Shiori Amemiya¹, Akira Kunimatsu¹, and Kuni Ohtomo^1
1Radiology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

To test the feasibility of hemodynamic impairment assessment using resting-fMRI (rfMRI), temporal dynamics of low-frequency-oscillation in ischemic patients were evaluated. Correlation coefficients between each voxel�fs and time-shifted (�}20s) global-mean-signal was calculated and the best-fit-shift was determined. Regions showing delayed time-to-peak in DSC-perfusion showed delay in rfMRI. rfMRI maps were highly reproducible and can be used to indicate abnormal perfusion in acute or chronic ischemic patients. Although the approach has the same limitations to other measurements (head motion and hemorrhage), non-invasiveness, simplicity and high reproducibility would be of clinical value as an alternative to current techniques in patient selection.

Sotirios Bisdas¹, Constantin Roder², Edyta Charyasc¹, Michael Erb¹, Marcos Soares Tatagiba², Ulrike Ernemann¹, and Uwe Klose^1
1Neuroradiology, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany, ²Neurosurgery, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen, Germany

Preliminary results in this study demonstrate that resting-state fMRI measurements can be performed in anesthetized patients before and during surgery for intracranial masses by using an intraoperative high-field MRI system. In each examined patient, up to 12 from the 28 published resting state network (RSN) components could be identified in the intraoperative MR setting without any reduction of the RSN activity, compared to awake patients. These findings shed light on the RSN connectivity in anesthetized patients and enable functional navigation by identifying the localization and connectivity of eloquent brain areas in an intraoperative setting.

Ji-Young Kim¹, Seong-Uk Jin², Jee-Hye Seo², Jang Woo Park², Jongsu Baek², Moon Han², Kyung-Eun Jang², Young-Hwan Lee*³, and Yongmin Chang^4,5
1Medical Science, Kyungpook National University School of Medicine, Daegu, Korea, ²Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, ³Radiology, Catholic University Medical Center, Daegu, Korea, ⁴Radiology, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, ⁵Molecular Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegy, Korea

Poststroke depression (PSD), a common and important neuropsychiatric sequela of stroke, is known to be a multifactorial process. In this study, using resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI), we investigate possible alteration in functional connectivity (FC) in association with PSD in the salience network (SN), which was most functionally relevant to depression.

Massimo Filippi¹, Federica Agosta¹, Elisa Canu¹, Nilo Riva², Alberto Inuggi¹, Adriano Chiò³, Stefano Messina⁴, Sandro Iannaccone⁵, Andrea Calvo³, Vincenzo Silani⁴, Paola Valsasina¹, Andrea Falini⁶, and Giancarlo Comi^2
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ²Department of Neurology, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ³Department of Neuroscience, University of Torino, Turin, TO, Italy, ⁴Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neuroscience, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Milan, MI, Italy,⁵Departement of Clinical Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ⁶Department of Neuroradiology and CERMAC, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy

We assessed the functional connectivity within motor and extra-motor brain networks in patients with primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) compared with healthy controls. We observed that functional abnormalities within large-scale neuronal networks occur in patients with PLS, involving not only the sensorimotor network but also the fronto-parietal and the executive networks. The pattern of increased functional connectivity in PLS patients correlated with the damage to the long white matter tracts and with cognitive deficits. This pattern of functional alterations in PLS supports a pathogenic loss of local inhibitory circuitry, rather than only compensatory recruitment.

Dahua Yu¹, Kai Yuan¹, Wei Qin¹, and Jie Tian^1,2
1School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xidian University, China, xi'an, Shaan xi, China, ²Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Beijing, China

Our study investigated the effect of depressive on the regional homogeneity properties in subjects with migraine without aura

Mary Beth Nebel^1,2, Ani Eloyan³, Anita Barber^1,2, Brian S. Caffo⁴, James J. Pekar^1,2, and Stewart H. Mostofsky^1,2
1Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ³Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁴Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) struggle with a host of motor behaviors, which may reflect abnormal connectivity within motor control and learning networks. Our objective was to estimate how well functional connectivity (FC) among subregions of the motor cortex (M1) discriminate individuals with ASD from neurotypical (NT) participants using a large, heterogeneous resting state fMRI dataset (368 ASD and 412 NT). Using a multinomial logistic regression model with demographic factors and M1 correlations as predictors and disease status as the outcome, we identified FC signatures of ASD that are consistent with deficits in complex multi-joint coordination associated with ASD.

Uwe Klose¹, Marion Batra¹, Benjamin Bender¹, and Thomas Nägele^1
1Dep. of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Hospital Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany

93 clinical fMRI experiments with a simple motor task were used to evaluate the average signal time course in the left and right primary motor cortex(pmc), the SMA and the left and right anterior cerebellum(ac). The averaging process showed a constant signal enhancement level in the pmc and the ac and a decreasing signal enhancement in the SMA. The mean signal enhancement level in the SMA and the ac was only 70 % of the pmc level. A post-stimulus undershoot could only be observed in the pmc.

Chenwang Jin¹, Kai Yuan², Netra Rana¹, Zhigang Min¹, Chen Niu¹, Yuan Wang¹, Ming Zhang¹, Wei Qin², and Jie Tian^3
1Medical Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, School of Medicine, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ²Life Sciences Research Center, Xidian University, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China, ³China Institute of Automation,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Beijing, China

Internet addiction disorder (IAD) is defined as maladaptive use of internet and inability of an individual to control his/her use of internet. IAD has been classified as a type of impulse control disorder. Here, we employed the amplitude of low frequency fluctuation (ALFF) method to explore the local features of spontaneous brain activity in patients with IAD and healthy controls during resting-state.

Yu Lin Wang^1
1radiology, PLA general hospital, beijing, beijing, China

Differentiation of Radiation-Injuries and Tumor Recurrence Using ADC value DWI has been considered a means to characterize and differentiate morphologic features such as edema,necrosis,and tumor tissue by measuring differences in the apparent diffusion coefficient(ADC). This technique has been applied to determining glioma grade and evaluating necrotic brain tissue after radiotherapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Thus, tumor recurrence within irradiated lesions may be differentiated from regions of radiation necrosis with DWI. 23 patients were prospectively entered into the study on the basis of the following criteria: previous treatment with radiation therapy after surgical resection for intraaxial tumors; new development of enhancing lesions within the radiation field. The final determination of the new development of enhancing lesions was decided either histologically or clinicoradiologically.

Massimo Filippi^1,2, Federica Agosta¹, Sara Sala^1,3, Paola Valsasina¹, Alessandro Meani¹, Elisa Canu¹, Giuseppe Magnani², Stefano Francesco Cappa⁴, Elisa Scola⁵, Piero Quatto³, Mark A. Horsfield⁶, Andrea Falini⁵, and Giancarlo Comi^2
1Neuroimaging Research Unit, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ²Department of Neurology, Institute of Experimental Neurology, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ³Department of Statistics, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, MI, Italy, ⁴Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Division of Neuroscience, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ⁵Department of Neuroradiology and CERMAC, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, MI, Italy, ⁶Medical Physics Group, Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Leicester, Leicestershire, United Kingdom

In this study, we used resting state fMRI data to construct functional networks in patients with the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) and healthy elderly subjects, and demonstrated that bvFTD is characterized by a topological functional disorganization of brain networks. Frontal and subcortical hubs of bvFTD patients showed a significant reduction of nodal centrality, suggesting a less central hub role for these regions in the overall network function. The conversion from small-world network architecture to less optimal functional topologies contributed to the cognitive changes in these patients, giving support to a “network perspective” in dementia.

Yuzheng Hu¹, Hong Gu¹, Betty Jo Salmeron¹, Lia Liang¹, Elliot Stein¹, and Yihong Yang^1
1Neuroimaging Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States

Accumulative evidence has indicated the involvement of the insular system in drug addiction by its fundamental role in interoception. However, relationship between the interoception, neurobiological measures of insula and addiction behaviors remains unclear. To address this question, the current study employed Toronto Alethymia Scale and resting-state functional connectivity (FC) method to cocaine dependents and well-matched controls. Elevated TAS score and decreased FC of insula-ACC circuitry as well as their disrupted relationship were found in cocaine group, suggesting disturbance of the interoceptive function and underlying neurobiological bases in drug addiction.

Jeremy F. Magland¹ and Anna Rose Childress^2
1Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²Department of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Real-time functional MRI (rtfMRI) feedback can potentially provide therapeutic cognitive training for various disorders. In the case of addiction therapy, the feedback paradigm design is especially challenging because asking patients to alternate between craving and non-craving states is not ideal. Here we introduce a new indirect rtfMRI feedback paradigm for probing cognitive control in real time and measuring disruption in the face of various distractions cues. Preliminary results suggest that distraction effects can be detected in real time for both patients and controls, and that participants may be able to use neurofeedback to learn to stay focused despite distraction.

Marjolein Verly¹, Judith Verhoeven², Inge Zink¹, Lieven Lagae³, Nathalie Rommel¹, and Stefan Sunaert^4
1ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ²Epilepsy Center Kempenhaeghe, Heeze, Netherlands, ³Child Neurology, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ⁴Radiology, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

In a sub-group of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) the failure in spoken language is not only restricted to the domain of pragmatics but encompasses semantic, syntactic and phonological domains. Functional and structural neuroimaging are promising techniques for unraveling the neural correlates underlying the linguistic deficits of autism. However, the interplay between structural and functional connectivity and language performance in autism is largely unstudied. In this study, we examined the neurostructural and neurofunctional basis of language impairment in ASD using diffusion tensor imaging and resting state magnetic resonance imaging. DTI tractography and rsfMRI have revealed a pattern of structural and functional underconnectivity in a subgroup of children with ASD. In this subgroup underconnectivity of the language network was associated with co-occurring language impairment.

Ki Sueng Choi¹, Patricio Riva Posse², Paul E. Holtzheimer³, Cameron C. McIntyre⁴, Xiaoping P. Hu¹, and Helen S. Mayberg^2
1BME, Georgia Institute of Technology / Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, ²Psychiatry, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, United States, ³Psychiatry and Surgery, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH, United States, ⁴BME, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States

Bilateral DBS of the subcallosal cingulate cortex results in sustained long-term antidepressant effects for treatment-resistant depression. Clinical response may be improved by more precise targeting along specific white matter tracts based on structural connectivity. The 6 and 24 months responder show connections to bilateral mF and limbic regions. The non-responder shows connections to unilateral mF but insufficient connections to limbic regions. For quantitative SC analysis, responder shows strong probability of connection to mF, bilateral inferior BA10, nucleus accumbens, putamen, and caudate. These results demonstrate that a successful clinical outcome is dependent on both bilateral mF and limbic/subcortical connections.

Xian-Feng Shi^1,2, Paul Carlson^1,2, Douglas G. Kondo^1,2, Young-Hoon Sung^1,2, Tracy L. Hellem², Lauren Forrest², Seong-Eun Kim³, Chun Zuo⁴, Eun-Kee Jeong³, and Perry F. Renshaw^1,2
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, ²The Brain Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, ³Department of Radiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, ⁴Brain Imaging Center, Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Massachusetts, United States

Synthesis and regeneration of high energy phosphates such as phosphocreatine (PCr) and nucleoside triphosphate (NTP) play an important role in supporting neuronal activity. PCr serves as an energy reservoir in skeletal muscle and brain, while NTP (which is primarily adenosine triphosphate (ATP)) is a direct energy source for metabolic processes. Creatine kinase (CK) is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion between PCr and ATP. By employing a recently updated phosphorus magnetization transfer, image selected in-vivo spectroscopy (³¹P MT-ISIS) technique, evaluation of all ³¹P-containing metabolites and CK reaction rates in human brain for bipolar disorder patients with depression were assessed.

Han Yuan¹, Raquel Phillips¹, Kymberly D. Young¹, Vadim Zotev¹, Masaya Misaki¹, and Jerzy Bodurka^1,2
1Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK, United States, ²College of Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, United States

We investigated possibility of brain plasticity effects in depressed subjects subjected to the real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rtfMRI-nf) training of amygdala activity during happy autobiographic memory recall. We compared the resting-state default-mode network (DMN) functional connectivity before and after rtfMRI-nf. Significant difference of DMN connectivity was found in the subjects after neurofeedback: increased in the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex, but decreased in the right medial temporal gyrus. The within-group, correlation analysis found positive correlation between the difference of DMN connectivity and the happiness/memory scores during the neurofeedback. Our results demonstrate sustainable changes within DMN induced by rtfMRI-nf.

Fuchun Lin¹, Shenhong Weng², Baojun Xie³, Yunfei Zha³, and Hao Lei^1
1State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics,Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei, China, ²Department of Psychiatry, Renmin Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China, ³Department of Radiology, Renmin Hospital, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China

Network analysis method was used to investigate the architecture of the white matter structural networks bipolar disorder. Although bipolar patients showed a small-world organization of white matter networks, they had significantly decreased network strength, decreased global efficiency and increased shortest path length. Moreover, bipolar patients had reduced efficiencies in several parietal, temporal, frontal, occipital and limbic regions. These findings may improve our understanding of the potential mechanisms of the underlying neurobiological basis of bipolar disorder.

Sylvie J. van der Kruijs¹, Shridhar Rajan Jagannathan², Nynke M. Bodde³, René M.H. Besseling¹, Richard H. Lazeron³, Kristl E. Vonck⁴, Paul A. Boon⁴, Pierre J. Cluitmans², Geert R. Langereis⁵, Paul A.M. Hofman¹, Walter H. Backes¹, Albert P. Aldenkamp³, and Jacobus F.A. Jansen^1
1Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Limburg, Netherlands, ²Electrical Engineering, University of Technology, Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, ³Kempenhaeghe, Heeze, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands, ⁴Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium, ⁵Industrial Design, University of Technology, Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands

Resting-state fMRI networks of 21 patients with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) and 27 healthy controls were investigated using principal independent component analyses. Patients with PNES demonstrated higher coactivation of the orbitofrontal, insular and subcallosal cortex in the resting-state network associated with fronto-parietal activation; the cingulate and insular cortex in the resting-state network associated with executive control; the cingulate gyrus, superior parietal lobe, pre- and postcentral gyri and supplemental motor cortex in the resting-state network associated with sensorimotor functioning; and the precuneus and (para-) cingulate gyri in the default-mode network. Since the network weights within these regions of interest were significantly and positively correlated with dissociation scores, these findings are suggested neurological correlates of the underlying dissociative mechanism of the symptoms.

Alexander Peter Lin¹, Sai K. Merugumala¹, Huijun Liao¹, Margaret Niznikiewicz², Kevin Spencer², Yoji Hirano², and Robert McCarley^2
1Center for Clinical Spectroscopy, Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²Laboratory of Neuroscience, Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Brockton, MA, United States

Many studies have shown that the superior temporal gyrus (STG) undergoes volumetric reductions in schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) and in schizophrenia (SZ) that are associated with electrophysiological abnormalities however to our knowledge, this region of the brain has not been examined with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), specifically focusing on neurotransmitters glutamate (Glu) and gamma-amino-butyric-acid (GABA). We here report SZ and SPD subjects have reductions of left STG GABA concentrations there are inversely correlated with gamma band oscillations (GBO) and Glu increases that are directly correlated with GBO (higher Glu, worse GBO PLF).

Dhruman Goradia¹, Sherry Vogel¹, Brianne Mohl¹, Caroline Zajac-Benitez¹, Dalal Khatib¹, Rachel Dick¹, Usha Rajan¹, Olivia McGarragle¹, David R. Rosenberg¹, and Jeffrey A. Stanley^1
1Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, United States

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) are frequently comorbid with RD coexisting in about 20-40% of cases with ADHD. However, the neuropathology differentiating ADHD with RD from ADHD without RD remains poorly understood. Reduction of caudate volume is a consistent observation in ADHD but not in RD. Because cortical projections to the striatum (caudate and putamen) are topographically organized, assessing morphological shape deformation of the striatum may implicate specific corticostriatal pathways. This study aims to assess alterations in surface deformation of the striatum that differentiate ADHD with RD from ADHD without RD and healthy control.

Leslie Yan^1
1New York University, NEW YORK, New York, United States

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder developed after traumatic experience with typical symptoms such as re-experiencing, hyper-arousal and avoidance [1]. Previous neuroimaging studies of PTSD have focused on the abnormal structures and functionality of a few individual brain regions, but have not paid much attention on the connectivity between these structures. Overcoming the limitation of traditional seed-based functional connectivity analysis, the present study used graph theory based analysis approaches to provide an overview of the connectivity in the whole neural network, as well as the properties of the neural network, with resting state fMRI data from trauma-exposed subjects with and without PTSD. The present study used graph theory methods to investigate the network properties of the two groups. Results suggest that the PTSD+ group had decreased amount of connections with weaker connectivity compared to the network of the PTSD- group. Analysis about network properties revealed decreased local cluster coefficients and lower efficiency, with no difference in characteristic path length and small world properties. This approach is very helpful in overcoming the limitation of “missing the forest for the trees” with traditional approaches and is able to provide an overview about the properties of neural networks.

David Rotenberg¹, James Kennedy^2,3, Benoit Mulsant^3,4, Aristotle N. Voineskos^1,3, and Mallar Chakravarty^1,5
1Research Imaging, Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ²Neuroscience, Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada,³Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, ⁴Geriatric Mental Health, Center for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada,⁵Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Identification of compromised WM pathways, along with better understanding of underlying genetic risk factors, will help to further our knowledge of schizophrenia etiology and the development of new schizophrenia biomarkers. A novel tract-based ROI statistical analysis is presented, that uses probabilistic tractography to segment tracts of interest across individuals, defining spatially restricted alignment-invariant skeletons for TBSS analysis, and has the potential to enable unique and focused investigations of WM tracts that may not be available through standard TBSS. Our ROI-based analysis provides evidence of altered thalamo-frontal circuity conferred by schizophrenia-risk gene NRXN1 variants, The right and left frontal-thalamic tracts were found to have statistically significant FA deficits in C/C homozygotes compared to C/T heterozygotets when corrected for multiple comparisons, whereas this effect was not distinguishable using standard TBSS.

Mohammad Haris¹, Anup Singh¹, Kejia Cai¹, Kavindra Nath², Feliks Kogan¹, Hari Hariharan¹, John A. Detre¹, C Neill Epperson³, and Ravinder Reddy^1
1CMROI, Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, ²Molecular Imaging, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, ³Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Modafinilis used for the treatment of narcolepsy and somnolence and is known to increase cerebral glutamate (Glu) levels. We used the GluCEST technique to measure modafinil induced Glu changes in rat brain and compared the results with Glu concentration by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). No immediate increases in either GluCEST or Glu concentration were observed after modafinil injection, but a significant increase in both GluCEST (19±4.4%) and MRS Glu concentration (22±4.9%) was observed 24 hours after modafinil administration.

Brianne Mohl¹, Dhruman Goradia¹, Dalal Khatib¹, Rachel Dick¹, Caroline Zajac-Benitez¹, Usha Rajan¹, Olivia McGarragle¹, Arthur L. Robin¹, David R. Rosenberg¹, Vaibhav A. Diwadkar¹, and Jeffrey A. Stanley^1
1Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, United States

ADHD is a serious public health problem. We recently reported age-related biochemical deficits in the prefrontal cortex of ADHD children using in vivo 31P MRS suggesting a lack of a progressive neurodevelopment in ADHD children. However, the functional basis of this effect has not been investigated using fMRI. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether ADHD children would show a similar lack of age-related changes in sustained attention performance. We hypothesized that healthy children will show an age-related increase in the fMRI BOLD response to attention performance, which will be absent in ADHD children.

Hao Shu^1,2, Yonggui Yuan^1,3, Chunming Xie^1,3, Feng Bai^1,3, Jiayong You⁴, Lingjiang Li⁵, Shi-Jiang Li², and Zhijun Zhang^1,3
1Medical College of Southeast University, Institute of Neuropsychiatry, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, ²Medical College of Wisconsin, Department of Biophysics, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, ³Affiliated ZhongDa Hospital of Southeast University, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, ⁴Nanjing Brain Hospital Affliated to Nanjing Medical University, Department of Psychiatry, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, ⁵Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, Mental Health Institute, Changsha, Hunan, China

In this study, we employed hippocampal seed-based network analysis approach and found distinct neural circuits were separately implicated in the effects of remitted geriatric depression (RGD) and apolipoprotein E (APOE) ¦Å4 allele, more importantly, the interactive effects of RGD and APOE¦Å4 allele were identified in prefrontal-temporal-occipital system, which are early targeted by Alzheimer¡¯s disease progression. These findings indicated both previous depressive episode and APOE ¦Å4 allele as well as their combination could alter functional coupling of hippocampal network, which may play a critical role in the persistent cognitive impairment and the development of Alzheimer¡¯s disease.

Jeffrey I. Berman^1,2, Matthew R. Lanza¹, Lisa Blaskey¹, and Timothy P. Roberts^1,2
1Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, United States, ²Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States

Quantitative assessment of the auditory radiation with diffusion MRI may improve our understanding of the neurobiological basis of ASD. This study applies quantitative HARDI fiber tracking of the auditory radiation to determine microstructural changes in ASD. This study included 10 typically developing (TD) children (mean age 11.8 ± 2.2 years) and 13 children (mean age 11.9 ± 2.7 yrs) diagnosed with ASD. Probabilistic HARDI fiber tracking using the solid-angle q-ball reconstruction was used to delineate auditory radiations. Significant changes in the hemispheric asymmetry of GFA, FA, and transverse diffusivity were detected between the typically developing and ASD subjects.

Li Yao¹, Su Lui¹, Fei Li¹, Xun Yang¹, Godfrey Pearlson², Matcheri Keshavan³, Carol Tamminga⁴, Qiyong Gong¹, and John Sweeney^4
1Department of Radiology, Huaxi MR Research Center, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, ²Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center, Institute of Living, Hartford, Connecticut, United States, ³Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, ⁴Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, United States

Although the schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share a number of overlap in clinical features, they are conceptualized as separate disease, and it is still uncertainty about the common and distinct neural substrates of each. Fifty-three schizophrenia patients, sixy-seven bipolar disorder patients and fifty-nine normal controls were scanned with resting-state functional MRI on a 3T. Regional low-frequency BOLD signal oscillations were used to identified regional functional deficits in these patients. Our findings revealed that the regional functional deficits of the two disease are quite different and involving two different neural network.

Sean Nicholas Hatton¹, Jim Lagopoulos¹, Daniel F. Hermens¹, Elizabeth Nicholas Scott¹, Ian B. Hickie¹, and Maxwell R. Bennett^1
1Clinical Research Unit, Brain & Mind Research Institute, Camperdown, NSW, Australia

We investigated cortical changes in young people with psychosis or bipolar disorder and the relationship between cortical thinning and neurocognitive performance. Although the groups exhibited some differences in regional cortical thinning, the shared regions of cortical thinning were correlated with neurocognitive deficits in visual sustained attention, semantic verbal fluency, and verbal learning and memory that are commonly reported in young people with either psychosis or bipolar disorder. While these disorders may have differing neuropathological origins, it is these shared regions of cortical thinning that most significantly impact the lives of young people with psychosis or bipolar disorder.

Leslie Yan¹, Mariana Lazar¹, Clare Henn-Haase¹, and Charles Marmar^1
1New York University, New York, NY, United States

Previous studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)with neuroimaging and animal models have identified several brain structures of the “fear circuitry” to play critical roles in the neural mechanism of PTSD, including the amygdala, the anterior cingulate cortex and the insula; these structures are shown to be “hyper-responsive” in previous task-based neuroimaging studies during symptom provocation conditions. However the neural connectivity between these structures and other neural systems has not yet been systematically investigated, therefore the present study used resting state fMRI to study the functional connectivity with the above mentioned structures as seeds in combat veterans with (PTSD+) and without PTSD(PTSD-). Results demonstrated that PTSD subjects had decreased functional connectivity between the fear circuitry and prefrontal cortex compared to controls, and decreased functional connectivity between the insula and the default mode network.

Leslie Yan¹, Mariana Lazar¹, Clare Henn-Haase¹, and Charles Marmar^1
1New York University, NEW YORK, New York, United States

Basal ganglia functional connectivity in combat-related PTSD

Cathy Scanlon¹, Liam Kilmartin², Heike Schmidt¹, Shane McInerney¹, John McFarland¹, Anna Fullard¹, Sarah Hehir¹, Srinath Ambati¹, Joanne Kenney¹, Michael Murray¹, Jason Ridge¹, Dara Cannon¹, and Colm McDonald^1
1Clinical Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, National University of Ireland, Galway, Co. Galway, Ireland, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, National University of Ireland, Galway, Co. Galway, Ireland

yan zhou¹, Yawen Sun¹, Weina Ding¹, Yong Zhang², and Jianrong Xu^1
1Radiology, Ren Ji Hospital, Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, shanghai, shanghai, China, ²GE healthcare, shanghai, shanghai, China

The FC method was used to detect the change in adolescents with Internet gaming addiction (IGD).Posterior cingulated cortex connectivity was gathered in 17 IGD and 24 normal controls adolescents. Adolescents with IGD have different resting state patterns. Our results suggested online game playing decreased the brain synchronization in sensory-motor coordination related brain regions and increased the excitability in auditory related brain regions.

Hong Yang¹, Manli Huang², Qidong Wang¹, and Zhan Feng^1
1Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medical Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, ²Department of Psychiatry, First Affiliated Hospital of College of Medical Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

Using ALFF approach, we are to test the hypothesis of the abnormal neural activities in the prefrontal–limbic networks in drug-naïve, first episode depression. Twenty-three patients and twenty controls were recruited. Twenty-two axial slices covering whole brain were acquired. Data processing was performed using DPARS software. Compared to controls, a significant increased ALFF in right frontal lobe and a significant decreased ALFF in right cerebellum, right occipital lobe as well as right parahippocampa gyrus were showed in patients. The abnormal neuronal activity in resting state support a model of dysfunction in the prefrontal–limbic networks in first episode depression.

Liu Xiaoyi¹, Hong Nan¹, Chen Lei¹, Lai Yunyao¹, Hao Chuanxi¹, and Yu Xin^2
1radiology, people'hospital,Peking University,China, Beijing, Beijing, China, ²Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, Beijing, China

In this study, we combined DTI and structural neuroimaging in schizophrenia patients with medication-naïve. We aim to investigate the relationship between the damage white matter and the cortical regions. The result in the study implicated for the psychopathology of schizophrenia both from an anatomical and connection perspective. And these abnormalities are not attributable to contamination by antipsychotic drugs.

A. Schrantee^1,2, J.L. Tremoleda², M. Wylezinska-Arridge², W. Gsell², and L. Reneman^1
1Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands, ²MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Biological Imaging Centre, London, United Kingdom

This study assesses whether phMRI is a valid tool to study the sensitivity to study moderate DA dysfunction. To this end we administered dAMPH chronically and assessed the BOLD response to a MPH challenge.

Darren Price¹, Lena Palaniyappan¹, Peter F. Liddle¹, Elizabeth B. Liddle¹, Emma Louise Hall¹, Helen J. Smith¹, Mary C. Stephenson¹, Peter G. Morris¹, and Matthew J. Brookes^1
1SPMMRC, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom

fMRI has revolutionised systems neuroscience via the identification of a small number of remarkably robust spatially distributed networks that are active under many circumstances. However, whilst fMRI provides excellent spatial characterisation, its indirect nature and poor temporal resolution mean that it fails to provide information on the electrophysiological basis or precise timing of network events. Here, we use magnetoencephalography (MEG) to assess network electrodynamics and healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia. We show that patients exhibit significant differences in amplitude and timing of task-induced electrophysiological responses. In this way we highlight the advantages of a multi-modal approach to network characterisation.

Lawrence S. Kegeles^1,2, Xiangling Mao³, Najate Ojeil¹, Raffael Massuda¹, Mariana Pedrini¹, Chi-Ming Chen⁴, Mark Slifstein¹, Anissa Abi-Dargham^1,2, Matthew S. Milak¹, Carolyn Rodriguez¹, and Dikoma C. Shungu^3
1Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, ²Radiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States, ³Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States

The effects on the brain of acute administration of ketamine are of current interest because of its psychotogenic and antidepressant properties. Rodent microdialysis studies have shown a surge in medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC) glutamate (Glu) with acute ketamine administration. In this study we use J-edited MRS to follow the time course of both Glu and GABA surges in the MPFC in healthy human subjects following acute i.v. ketamine administration. We find that both neurochemicals surge and return to baseline in humans on a similar time scale to the extracellular levels in rodents.

Sundar Gnanavel¹, Pratap Sharan², Sudhir Khandelwal², Uma Sharma³, Jagannathan NR⁴, and Rani Gupta Sah^4
1Psychiatry, AIIMS, New Delhi, Select State, India, ²Psychiatry, AIIMS, New Delhi, Delhi, India, ³NMR, AIIMS, New Delhi, Select State, India, ⁴NMR, AIIMS, New Delhi, Delhi, India

The study aims to demonstrate alterations in neurochemical measures that are specific to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) using invivo proton MRS of caudate nucleus, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and medial thalamus in patients of OCD and to identify their role as vulnerability markers by comparing them with the healthy first degree relatives of these patients and healthy controls. There were significant group differences in two of the three regions of interest: caudate nucleus and ACC. The study results support the neurodegenerative hypothesis of OCD and possibility of use of these bio-chemicals as putative markers that may aid in early intervention.

Noriyuki Fujima¹, Daisuke Yoshida¹, Tomohiro Sakashita², Akihiro Homma², Yuriko Suzuki³, Hiroyuki Sugimori¹, Khin Khin Tha⁴, Satoshi Terae¹, and Hiroki Shirato^4
1Radiology, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, ²Head and Neck Surgery, Hokkaido University Hospital, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, ³Philips Electronics Japan, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, ⁴Radiology, Hokkaido University, Graduate School of Medicine, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

This study shows tumor blood flow (TBF) can be noninvasively measured using pseudo continuous arterial spin labeling in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. TBF can be useful information for estimation of prognosis and early detection of treatment effect. Moreover, TBF are considered as more sensitive indicator to determine treatment effect than conventional tumor volume measurement.

Amita Shukla-Dave¹, Yonggang Lu¹, Ashok R. Shaha¹, Hilda E. Stambuk¹, Andre E. Moreira¹, Yousef Mazaheri¹, Joseph O. Deasy¹, and R. Michael Tuttle^1
1Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, United States

There remains a pressing need of non-invasive imaging methods to identify patients with aggressive tumors in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). This study evaluates whether diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) has potential to stratify tumor aggressiveness in PTC. Twelve PTC patients underwent pretreatment DW-MRI at 1.5T. The ADC (apparent diffusion coefficient) and normalized ADC (nADC) were calculated from the DW-MRI data. All patients underwent surgery. Tumor aggressiveness was defined at pathology. nADC was able to differentiate between tumors with and without aggressive features. The study suggests nADC as a potential surrogate biomarker for stratifying tumor aggressiveness in PTC.

Boris Keil¹, Julien Cohen-Adad^1,2, David A. Porter³, Stephan Biber³, Keith A. Heberlein⁴, Christina Triantafyllou¹, and Lawrence L. Wald^1,5
1A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States, ²Department of Electrical Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, ³MR R&D, Siemens AG, Healthcare Sector, Erlangen, Germany, ⁴Siemens Medical Solution USA, Siemens Healthcare USA, Charlestown, MA, United States, ⁵Health Science and Technology, Harvard-MIT, Cambridge, MA, United States

In this study we evaluated the suitability for simultaneous brain and cervical spinal cord diffusion-weighted MRI acquisition using a custom built array coil utilizing 64 channels. For further mitigation of non-rigid-body motion artifacts, we used a readout-segmented EPI acquisition technique with non-linear 2D navigator phase correction and navigator-based reacquisition. The DW images show well aligned correspondence to structural images with minimal distortions from the c-spinal cord throughout the full brain. The sequence and coil setup were capable of robustly tracking the corticospinal pathway at its full length from the motor cortex down to vertebra T1.

Anna M. Brown^1,2, Sidhartha Nagala³, Daniel Scoffings⁴, Mary McLean², Andrew N. Priest⁴, Piyush Jani³, and John Griffiths^2
1School of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States, ²Department of Oncology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, ³Department of Otolaryngology, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Radiology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom

Ultrasound-guided needle biopsy fails to diagnose up to 20% of malignant thyroid nodules. Texture analysis and linear discriminant analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient maps offers a novel approach to non-invasively distinguish between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. We achieved high sensitivity (87%) and specificity (100%) on a training set, with 83/87 slices and 18/20 nodules correctly classified. Additionally, 11/14 slices and 5/6 nodules were correctly characterised in a test set. This study indicates great potential to better characterise indeterminate thyroid nodules, and a large prospective study is now needed to fully prove this model.

Marios C. Yiannakas¹, Ahmed T. Toosy¹, Rhian E. Raftopoulos¹, Raj Kapoor¹, David H. Miller¹, and Claudia Angela M. Wheeler-Kingshott^1
1NMR Research Unit, Queen Square MS Centre, Department of Neuroinflammation, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, WC1N 3BG, United Kingdom

A new image acquisition and analysis protocol is presented here for fast and reliable segmentation of the intraorbital optic nerve which employs an improved image acquisition scheme in conjunction with a robust image analysis method commonly used for the segmentation of the cervical cord, a similar model to the intraorbital optic nerve. The images obtainable with the use of the proposed acquisition protocol allow highly reproducible measurements of the mean cross-sectional area of the intraorbital optic nerve.

Akihiro Hirayama¹, Satoshi Yatsushiro², Hideki Atsumi¹, Mitsunori Matsumae¹, and Kagayaki Kuroda^2
1Neurosurgery, Tokai university, Isehara, Kanagawa, Japan, ²Human and information Science, Tokai University, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan

The 4D-PC is performed in a pulsatile flow phantom and a volunteer with arachnoid cyst to indicate usefulness of 4D-PC technique in assessing pulsatile CSF motion in comparison with Time-SLIP. The phantom was composed of a tube equipped a thin membrane and normal tubes, which poured pulsatile flow generated by the cardiac pump. The waveform anterior to the membrane was resemblance with that posterior to the membrane. However, labeled fluid by Time-SLIP in anterior membrane area showed only a slight displacement. Similar phenomenon was observed within the arachnoid cyst. This technique could indicate propagation of CSF pulsation through the membranous.

Olivier Baledent¹, Stephanie Dakpe¹, Cyrille Capel¹, Malek I. Makki², Roger Bouzerar¹, Sylvie Testelin¹, and bernard devauchelle^1
1university hospital, amiens, picardie, France, ²university hospital, zurich, zurich, Switzerland

The First human face allograft was made in 2005. Transplantation consisted in part of revascularization of facial arteries and veins. This investigation aims to develop a dedicated PC-MRI protocol to assess arterial and venous flow of the face. Mean arterial and venous flows from a control adult group were reconstructed along the cardiac cycle. PC-MRI shows that the Transplantation women vascular flows were functional both in the venous and arterial vessels of her face. PC-MRI protocol has shown its ability to measure arterial and venous flow of the face.

Shy-Chyi Chin^1,2, Yu-Shi Lin^2,3, and Ho-Ling Liu^1,2
1Medical Imaging and Intervention, Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan, ²Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan,³Diagnostic Radiology, Keelung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan

We have derived an imaging metric that combines T1-weighted DCE-MRI parameters and tumor volume to predict the distant metastasis (DM). Preliminary data indicate that the DCE-MRI parameter correlates well with a tumor¡¦s DM. Patients at risk of DM are sometime undetermined even with PET scan until there is clinical decline or radiologic progression. In clinical practice, knowing which patients will have DM is important to the individualization of care. Thus, tumor volume and DCE-MRI parameters, specifically, the maximal values of the Ktrans,ve and vp can be useful methods for tailoring treatment and improving patient outcomes.

Thomas Stewart Denney Jr^1,2, Nouha Salibi³, Ronald J. Beyers¹, and Paul Gamlin^4
1AU MRI Research Center, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States, ²Electrical and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States, ³Research Collaborations, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc, Auburn, AL, United States, ⁴Department of Vision Sciences, University of Alabama Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States

Standard tagged cardiac MRI sequences and head coils were used to image ocular tissues at 3T and 7T. Normal volunteers were imaged at both 3T and 7T while undergoing a smooth pursuit eye motion generated by tracking a target that moved back and forth in a sinusoidal fashion on a black background. Images clearly showed the deformation of the extraocular muscles, optic nerve, and vitreous with only minor susceptibility artifacts outside the region of interest. Post-processing techniques for quantitative strain mapping in the extraocular muscles, optic nerve and globe are under development.

Kathrin Ogris^1,2, Thomas Widek¹, Sonja Monika Pivec^1,3, Thomas Ehammer¹, Gerlinde Komatz⁴, Sabine Grassegger^1,2, Kathrin Yen⁵, and Eva Scheurer^1,2
1Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Clinical- Forensic Imaging, Graz, Styria, Austria, ²Medical University Graz, Graz, Styria, Austria, ³UKH Graz, Graz, Styria, Austria, ⁴MRI Institute Private Clinic of the Holy Sisters, Graz, Styria, Austria, ⁵Institue of Forensic and Traffic Medicine, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

In surviving victims of strangulation it is important to assure the diagnosis and to gain information allowing for a reconstruction of the assault based on objective findings. The aim of this study was to compare radiological findings of a native MRI with external findings in strangulated subjects regarding the forensic reconstruction of the event. External findings mostly did not correlate with internal injuries; however, the correlation of the injury localization with information on the assault gave insight into possible mechanisms of injury. MRI of the neck might become a standard procedure for the examination of living victims of strangulation.

Yi-Hsiung Lee¹, Yi-Jui Liu², Hing-Chiu Chang³, Chun-Jung Juan⁴, Teng-Yi Huang⁵, and Fu-Nien Wang^6
1Ph. D. Program of Electrical and Communications Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, ²Department of Automatic Control Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan, ³Brain Imaging and Analysis Center, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ⁵Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan, ⁶Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences College of Nuclear Science, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

The DWI is widly used for diagnostic characterization of head and neck cancers, but inter-experimental comparison of parotid ADC remains difficult because of the wide variation of ADC measurements even in healthy volunteers. Most of studies attributed to the different b values, imaging distortion, chemical shift artifacts and fat content . The signal loss of DWI is often observed in liver study, but it seldom reports in head and neck. Our results demonstrate that the minor motion of mouth was occurred as DWI scan, and it is also an influence factor for ADC measurement in parotid.

Zaid Bin Mahbub¹, Andrew Peters¹, K Siddique Rabbani², Olivier E. Mougin¹, and Penelope A. Gowland^1
1SPMMRC, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom, ²Department of Biomedical Physics and Technology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Diffusion weighted whole body imaging with background suppression (DWIBS) has been previously proposed as a method of delineating the nerve roots from background tissue. To study common disorders in the Brachial plexus quantitatively we combine of DWIBS with various quantitative imaging techniques. This study measures MTR, Diffusion coefficients (D) and T2 of the nerves and spinal cord in the brachial plexus to provide a comprehensive method of quantitatively assessing peripheral nerve fibres.

Eric R. Muir¹, Yi Zhang¹, Jinqi Li¹, Oscar San Emeterio Nateras¹, Wei Zhou¹, and Timothy O. Duong^2
1Research Imaging Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, United States, ²Research Imaging Institute, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States

Abnormal vitreal oxygen tension (pO2) is implicated in some ocular and retinal diseases. Paramagnetic molecular oxygen shortens water T1, an effect which has been used to non-invasively map pO2 of body fluids. Paramagnetic agents should also affect T2, but the effect of oxygen on T2 has yet to be thoroughly explored. The aim of this study was to develop and calibrate MRI measurement of T1 and T2 with oxygen and apply these methods to non-invasively measure pO2 of the vitreous. Vitreous pO2 from T1 was more accurate than T2, likely due to the higher sensitivity of T2 to protein.

Travis A. Abele¹, K. Craig Goodrich², Seong-Eun Kim², Gretchen Mae Oakley³, Joshua D. Kaggie², J. Rock Hadley², Dennis L. Parker², and Richard H. Wiggins III^1,3
1Radiology, University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, ²UCAIR, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, ³Surgery, Division of Otolaryngology, University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

High-resolution MRI is valuable for evaluation of the inner ear. Using a novel composite gradient system, operating at double gradient strength, we sought to demonstrate improved spatial resolution of the inner ear on 3T MRI. Deceased guinea pigs were imaged with 3D-CISS using the composite gradient system and conventional body gradients alone. 3D-FLASH after intratympanic gadolinium administration was performed with the composite gradients. Composite gradient CISS achieved 8-fold greater resolution with only 61% increased imaging time. 12 hour averaged FLASH images demonstrated the ultra-thin vestibular membrane of the cochlea. Potential clinical applications include better detection of endolymphatic hydrops and cholesteatomas.

Hyung Suk Seo¹, Seong-Eun Kim², John Rose², J Rock Hardley², Dennis L. Parker², and Eun-Kee Jeong^2
1Radiology, Korea University, Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, ²Radiology, Utah Center for Advanced Imaging Research, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

EOMs have developed differently from other skeletal muscle in histological, biological and histochemical aspects. Recently, single-shot DWEPI using interleaved multiple inner volume imaging could supply high-resolution DTI of orbit with reduced geometric distortion and blurring. The diffusivity values of EOM were lower and the FA values were higher than those of skeletal muscle.These results should be related to the unique functional, structural, histological, biochemical and histochemical properties of EOM. These DTI characteristics may be an important biomarker to diagnose the specific susceptible diseases of EOM.

Honglu Shi¹, Guangbin Wang¹, Daogong Zhang¹, Weibo Chen², and Queenie Chan^3
1Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Jinan, Shandong, China, ²Philips Healthcare, Shanghai, China, ³Philips Healthcare, Hong Kong, China

According to absence of radiographic evidence for Meniere's disease diagnosis, we attempted to evaluate endolymphatic visualization in our research. 24 hours after intratympanic gadolinium administration through the tympanic membrane, 32 patients with unilateral Meniere's disease diagnosed clinically underwent 3D-FLAIR and 3D-Balance-FFE MRI. Two radiologists independently compared the enhanced perilymphatic space of bilateral cochlea and vestibular on 3D-FLAIR imaging. Statistically, the score of scala vestibuli, the enhanced range and the signal intensity of vestibule for the affected side were significantly lower than the healthy side. In conclusion, 3D-FLAIR MRI after intratympanic gadolinium administration can show the border between perilymph and endolymph and confirm endolymphatic hydrops.

William D. Rooney¹, Manoj K. Sammi¹, John Grinstead^1,2, Jim Pollaro¹, Audrey H. Selzer¹, Xin Li¹, and Charles Springer^1
1Advanced Imaging Research Center, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR, United States, ²Siemens Healthcare USA, Malverne, PA, United States

Contrast reagents (CR) find widespread use in MRI and an important consideration in ultra-high field MRI relates to CR detection sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to quantify the detection sensitivity of a low molecular weight gadolinium based CR at 3T and 7T in human head tissue. Twelve subjects were studied at 3T and 7T using a dynamic contrast enhanced MRI protocol with quantitative measurement of tissue water proton longitudinal relaxation rate constants. We find significantly better CR detection sensitivity at 7T compared to 3T.

Maarten J. Versluis^1,2, Wyger M. Brink^1,2, Wouter M. Teeuwisse^1,2, Andrew G. Webb^1,2, Matthias J.P. van Osch^1,2, and Berit M. Verbist^1
1Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ²CJ Gorter Center for high field MRI, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

This abstract describes the steps that have been taken to enable high resolution T2-weighted imaging of the inner ear anatomy at 7 Tesla for potential use in screening for cochlear implantation. The small size of these substructures requires high resolution imaging to detect subtle changes. The intrinsic B1+ inhomogeneities in this area were mitigated by placing dielectric pads next to the ear by placing dielectric pads next to the ear. The high spatial resolution led to improved visualization of the substructures of the inner ear anatomy.

Saeed Kalantari¹, Nazanin Komeilizadeh², Irene Vavasour¹, Ramin S. Sahebjavaher³, and Alex L. MacKay^1
1UBC MRI Research Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ²Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada, ³Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Saeed Kalantari¹, Radim Barta², Nazanin Komeilizadeh³, Carl Michal², and Alex L. MacKay^1,2
1UBC MRI Research Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ²Department of Physics, UBC, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ³Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

The main goal of this research was to investigate whether white matter T1 relaxation in brain is a mono-exponential or a multi-exponential phenomenon.

Xue Feng¹, Josh Inouye², Silvia Blemker¹, Kant Lin³, Kathleen Borowitz³, Talissa A. Altes⁴, Tracy Kovach³, Walid El-Nahal³, Katie Pelland², and Craig H. Meyer^1,4
1Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, ²Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, ³Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, ⁴Radiology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, United States

Velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) is commonly seen in children who have had a cleft palate repair. Current clinical methods for visualizing VPI include nasal endoscopy and multi-planar video fluoroscopy, which suffer from poor patient tolerance and/or radiation exposure. Static MRI of the velum before and after surgery has been performed for the evaluation of occult submucous cleft palate and velum muscle modeling. Dynamic MRI during speech has also been developed with a relatively high temporal resolution to capture the movements of the tongue and velum. In our study, we focus on the velum movements and aim to simultaneously acquire two slices of the velum with sagittal and oblique coronal views with high spatial (1.2x1.2 mm2) and temporal (21 fps) resolution to get sufficient dynamic information for VPI evaluation and modeling using a real-time spiral SSFP sequence and a combined spatial and temporal parallel reconstruction method with off-resonance correction.

Michael Burdumy^1,2, Matthias Echternach², Bernhard Richter², Jan G. Korvink^3,4, Jürgen Hennig¹, and Maxim Zaitsev^1
1Medical Physics, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, ²Department of Musicians' Medicine, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, ³IMTEK, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, ⁴FRIAS, Freiburg, Germany

MRI has become a useful instrument to investigate movement patterns in the vocal tract during singing. In our study we present a new method to acquire and reconstruct images of the vocal tract during singing with an improved temporal resolution. We compare images from a Cartesian gradient echo sequence with images acquired with a radial gradient echo sequence. Data is reconstructed using a SENSE-like conjugated gradient method with low resolution sensitivity maps that are subsequently reconstructed directly from the echoes.

Christina Schraml¹, Petros Martirosian², Cornelia Brendle¹, Holger Schmidt^1,3, Mark Mueller⁴, Claus D. Claussen⁵, Christina Pfannenberg¹, and Nina F. Schwenzer^1
1Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Department of Radiology, Tuebingen, BW, Germany, ²Section on Experimental Radiology, University Department of Radiology, Tuebingen, BW, Germany, ³Laboratory for Preclinical Imaging and Imaging Technology of the Werner Siemens-Foundation, Department of Radiology, Tuebingen, BW, Germany,⁴Nuclear Medicine, University Department of Radiology, Tuebingen, BW, Germany, ⁵University Department of Radiology, Tuebingen, BW, Germany

The acquisition of diffusion-weighted images in a simultaneous hybrid 3 T MR/PET scanner provides diagnostic image quality for the assessment of head and neck cancer. Primary tumors and lymph node (LN) metastases significantly differed regarding standardized uptake values (SUV) in 18F-FDG-PET. However, no significant difference was found between primary tumors and LN metastases regarding apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC). The absence of significant correlation between ADC and SUV suggests that DWI and FDG-PET might provide complementary information for the characterization of head and neck cancer.

Yu-Chun Lin¹, Jiun-jie Wang², and Shu-Hang Ng^1
1Department of Medical Imaging and Intervention, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, 333, Taiwan, ²Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, 333, Taiwan

Fifty-four patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma underwent dynamic contrast enhanced MRI and diffusion weighted imaging in a 3T MRI scanner. The Ktrans(tumor) of locoregional control (LRC) group was significantly higher than that of the locoregional failure (LRF) group. The Ktrans(node) of the LRC group was also higher than that of the LRF group with borderline significance. No significant difference was found in ADC(tumor) or ADC(node) between the two groups. Ktrans(tumor) of 0.45,determined by the receiver operating characteristic curve as a cutoff value for predicting local failure, attained 78.6% sensitivity of and 77.8% specificity

Chou-Ming Cheng^1,2, Hsiao-Wen Chung¹, Hing-Chiu Chang^1,3, Tzu-Chen Yeh^4,5, Jen-Chuen Hsieh^5,6, Shing-Jong Lin⁶, and Chao-Ying Wang^7
1Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, New Taipei City, Taiwan, Taiwan, ²Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ³GE Healthcare, Global Applied Science Laboratory, Taipei, Taiwan, ⁴Department of Radiology, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, ⁵Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, ⁶Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan, ⁷Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, Taiwan

Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and susceptibility weighted angiography (SWAN) helps delineating hemorrhage and veins by incorporating phase information from long echo time (TE) signals and performing multiple echoes averaged, respectively. Since the averaging operation with signals from early echoes inevitably results in a dilution of T2* weighting, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvements and loss in contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) present an obvious trade-off. In this research, an adaptive averaging scheme for multi-echo SWI is proposed, with weights of echoes adjusted according to the phase value of each voxel to achieve SNR improvements without sacrificing CNR.

Shinji Naganawa¹, Masahiro Yamazaki¹, Hisashi Kawai¹, Kiminori Bokura¹, Michihiko Sone², and Tsutomu Nakashima^2
1Department of Radiology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, ²Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

Endolymphatic hydrops of Meniere's disease has been evaluated by intratympanic (IT) or intravenous (IV) Gd injection. We have developed a novel method to image the patient who recieved IT in one ear and IV simultaneously. Proposed HYDROPS2 method can replace 3D-real IR method currently used in most institutions.

Xue Bai^1,2, Guangbin Wang¹, Lebin Wu¹, Yube Liu¹, and Honglu Shi^1
1Shandong Medical Imaging Research Institute, Jinan, Shandong, China, ²324#, Jingwu Road, Jinan 250021, Jinan, P.R. China, Jinan, Shandong, China

Susceptibility-weighted imaging which uses magnitude and phase information to enhance the local tissue susceptibility variations information is very sensitive to paramagnetic substances. Copper is paramagnetic ion, and Wilson's disease is copper ovreloading disesas. The aim of this study was to evaluate the susceptibility-weighted imaging filtered phase shift in brain gray nuclei of Wilson¡¯s disease

Yoon-Chul Kim¹, Michael I. Proctor², Michael C.K. Khoo³, Shrikanth S. Narayanan¹, and Krishna S. Nayak^1
1Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ²Linguistics, University of Western Sydney, Sydney, Australia, ³Biomedical Engineering and Pediatrics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Real-time MRI has been used to study speech production as well as to identify collapse sites in subjects with obstructive sleep apnea. Snoring is a common precursor to apnea, and an indication of potential airway obstruction. We implemented a pulse sequence to allow for gradual ramping of gradients, resulting in gradual increase of acoustic noise, to facilitate natural sleep onset. In one subject, who reported falling asleep, we observed airway obstruction near the soft palate, and MRI-noise cancelled synchronized audio of snoring sounds.

Yoonho Nam¹, Eung Yeop Kim², and Dong-Hyun Kim^1
1School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea, ²Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

Preclinical diagnosis of iron overload in the pituitary gland is important for chronically transfused patients with hemoglobinopathies such as thalassemia.1,2 T2* measurement is very sensitive for detecting iron deposition in several tissues3 but severe susceptibility artifact (due to sphenoid sinus) makes T2* measurement in the pituitary gland difficult. Instead, T2 measurement or T2*-weighted imaging have been used to assess iron deposition in the pituitary gland.1,2 In this study, we propose a T2* measurement method based on field map analysis and susceptibility artifact correction in the pituitary gland ultimately aimed at evaluating iron overload.

Helen Erica D'Arceuil¹, Alex de Crespigny², Michael E. Moseley³, Francis Blankenberg⁴, and Maarten Lansberg^5
1Diagnostic Radiology, Stanford, Stanford, CA, United States, ²Genentech Inc, South San Francisco, CA, United States, ³Diagnostic Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States, ⁴Pediatric Radiology, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Palo Alto, CA, United States, ⁵Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Stanford Stroke Center, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, Stanford, CA, United States

We estimated the vessel density parameter Q from changes in R2 and R2* relaxation rates before/after injection of ferumoxytol in 5 healthy subjects. Changes in R2 were highly correlated with changes in R2*. Q in normal gray matter was about 0.58, comparable to that previously reported in rodent brain, using MION contrast agents. This approach using a contrast agent at steady-state permits high resolution imaging of vascular parameters and may prove useful for assessment of angiogenesis, for example during vascular targeted therapy in oncology or regenerative therapy in stroke.

M. Ayaz Khan^1,2, Jie Liu^1,2, Jaladhar Neelavalli^3,4, Saifeng Liu⁵, Ewart Mark Haacke^3,5, and Rong Zhang^1,2
1Cardiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ²Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Dallas, TX, United States,³Biomedical Engineering Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States, ⁴Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States, ⁵Biomedical Engineering Department, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Brain oxygen saturation is a key parameter for assessing oxygen supply, metabolism and tissue viability. Near infrared spectroscopy is a widely used technique to measure brain tissue oxygen saturation. However, this technique cannot be used to measures brain tissue oxygenation in deep brain structures and could be contaminated by changes in extracranial tissue oxygenation. Susceptibility weighted image mapping generates susceptibility maps which can be used to measure oxygen saturation in local venous structures in the brain. This study compared measurements of brain oxygen saturation using susceptibility mapping and near infrared spectroscopy in normal healthy subjects.

Brian Johnson¹, Semyon Slobounov¹, Wayne Sebastianelli¹, and Thomas Neuberger^1
1The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, United States

After clinical resolution of signs and symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) it is still not clear if there are residual structural or functional abnormalities of brain networks. 15 normal volunteers (NV) and 15 subacute mTBI subjects underwent 1H-MRS in the subacute phase of injury. We report that both in the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum NAA/Cho and NAA/Cr ratios were significantly lower in mTBI subjects compared to NVs. This novel finding supports our hypothesis that the functional disruption of interhemispheric brain networks in mTBI subjects may result from compromised metabolic integrity of the corpus callosum.

Mingyi Li¹, Blessy Mathew¹, Katherine Koenig¹, Jian Lin¹, Michael Phillips¹, and Mark J. Lowe^1
1Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Transforming MRI brain images into Talairach space will greatly facilitate the comparison of neuroimaging research results across subjects and applications of atlas to research subjects and clinical patients. We developed an automatic processing pipeline based on nonlinear registration to transform brain images to Talairach space. The pipeline depended on matching scores derived from brain parcellation for quality assurance. The pipeline was tested on subjects including five controls and eleven patients with high EDSS score. The results showed the new method had significant improvement on the matching accuracy for both control and patients over two widely used methods.

Florian Schubert¹, Simone Kühn², Ralf Mekle¹, Jürgen Gallinat³, and Bernd Ittermann^1
1Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin, Berlin, Germany, ²MPI for Human Development, Berlin, Berlin, Germany, ³Charite University Medicine, Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Nicotine initiates synaptic and cellular changes which may lead to structural brain alterations. We measured the amygdala volume of 25 smokers, 25 ex-smokers and 26 never-smokers using high-resolution T1-weighted MR imaging at 3T and Freesurfer volumetry, and explored the results for relationships with respect to smoking behavior. The amygdala (both sides) was significantly larger in never-smokers than in ex-smokers and smokers. The total amygdala volume was significantly reduced with increasing number of pack years. These results indicate a possible loss of amygdala volume in subjects with a smoking history and point to a structural involvement of the amygdala in addiction.

Tom Haeck^1,2, Thijs Dhollander^1,2, Frederik Maes^1,2, Stefan Sunaert^1,3, and Paul Suetens^1,2
1Medical Imaging Research Center (MIRC), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ²Center for Processing Speech and Images (PSI), Department of Electrical Engineering (ESAT), KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium, ³Department of Radiology, University Hospitals of the KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

MR-images of the brain can be segmented by registration with an atlas. A common way to do so is to register the brain volume with an intensity atlas and consequently to propagate the labels of the atlas to the brain volume according to the resulting deformation field. However, most intensity-based registration algorithms fail in the presence of pathologies. This causes gross segmentation errors in the vicinity of the pathology. We study the possibility to improve the robustness of the demons algorithm by minor, easy-to-implement, modifications of the demons force.

Timo De Bondt^1,2, Wim Van Hecke³, Jan Sijbers⁴, Yves Jacquemyn⁵, Stefan Sunaert⁶, and Paul M. Parizel^1,2
1Radiology, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, ²Radiology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, ³icoMetrix, Leuven, Belgium, ⁴Physics, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, ⁵Gynaecology and Obstaetrics, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, ⁶Radiology, University Hospitals of the Catholic University Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

Yoshichika Yoshioka^1,2, Hiroshi Oikawa³, Yoshiyuki Kanbara⁴, Yutaka Matsumura⁴, Takashi Inoue⁵, Yutaka Shinohe⁶, Shigeharu Joh⁶, Tsuyoshi Matsuda⁷, Akira Nabatani⁸, and Junji Seki^9
1Immunology Frontier Research Center (WPI-IFReC), Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan, ²Center for Information and Neural Networks (CiNet), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, and Osaka University, Suita, Osaka, Japan, ³Radiology, Ninohe Hospital, Ninohe, Iwate, Japan, ⁴High Field MRI Research Institute, Iwate Medical University, Takizawa, Iwate, Japan, ⁵Neurosurgery, Kohnan Hospital, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan, ⁶Dental Anesthesiology, Iwate Medical University, Morioka, Iwate, Japan, ⁷Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare Japan, Hino, Tokyo, Japan, ⁸Madical Imaging Strategic Planning Div., Canon, Ohtaku, Tokyo, Japan, ⁹National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center, Suita, Osaka, Japan

Physiological human brain temperatures have been measured by MRS. However, it is not clear whether the brain temperature rises or falls during brain activations. We have tried to monitor brain temperature changes during exercises and some other maneuvers. We found that the brain temperatures fall during light tasks such as hand grasp, tongue stimulation, and sedation. We also could estimate the brain energy decrease during sedation as 0.2 W (estimated as a whole brain) with brain temperature changes. The energy difference between arousal and sedation in our case was about 1 % of the energy that brain needs.

Seong-Uk Jin¹, Jeehye Seo¹, Jang Woo Park¹, Moon Han¹, Yongmin Chang^1,2, and Kyung Jin Suh^3
1medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, ²Radioloty and molecular medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Korea, ³Radiology, College of Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyungju, Korea

An increase in the Manganese concentration in the brain is a critical step in Mn neurotoxicity, also known as manganism. It is important question whether the neurobehavioral dysfunctions, which are often found in Mn-exposed welders, are associated with structural brain abnormalities in Mn-exposed welders. Voxel-based morphometry demonstrated voxel-wise comparisons of gray and white matter at a whole-brain level, has been useful in characterizing subtle changes in brain structure in a variety of diseases associated with neurological and psychiatric dysfunction. the present research showed significant correlations between several neurobehavioral deficits and volumetric indices.

Yi Lao*^1,2, Laurie Anne Dion³, Fernando Yepes^2,4, Guillaume Gilbert^5,6, Maryse Bouchard⁵, Dave Saint Amour^³, and Natasha Lepore^1,2
1University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ²Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, ³Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, QC, Canada, ⁴University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain, ⁵Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada, ⁶Philips Healthcare, Montreal, QC, Canada

Long-term Manganese exposure(Mn) will cause neuromotor and deficits. However, studies focusing on the adverse effects of Mn on white matter microstructures are few in number. Moreover, white matter structures may not be accurately mapped in traditional voxel-based analysis which is widely used in related studies. Here we use a more recent semi-automated method- Tract Specific Analysis to quantify white matter changes caused by chronic Mn exposure. Tract Specific Analysis begins with a tensor-based registration and is followed by a tract-based statistical analysis on manually-delineated tracts. While the related studies were performed on adult humans, we look at the effects of Mn on brain white matter microstructure in children chronically exposed to Mn through drinking water.

Claudia Huerta¹, Roy Eldor¹, Muhammad Abdul-Ghani¹, Ralph DeFronzo¹, and Timothy O. Duong^2
1UTHSCSA, San Antonio, TX, United States, ²UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States

In this study, we propose to investigate the neural response to visual food cues utilizing fMRI in lean and obese subjects pre and post intravenously infusion of Exenatide, a synthetic version of the gut peptide GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), it is known to increase satiety and promotes weight loss. Lean showed an increased response in motivation, cognitive control and decision-making components of food intake regulation after Exenatide, whereas obese subjects showed increased neural response following Exenatide infusion only in a few structures classified in the motivation component.

Pallavi Tiwari¹, Shabbar Danish², and Anant Madabhushi^1
1Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OHIO, United States, ²Neurology, University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States

In this work, we quantitatively evaluate changes in multi parametric MRI (MP-MRI) imaging markers (T1-w, T2-w, T2-GRE, T2-FLAIR, and ADC) over the epileptogenic foci, pre- and post- laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT), to (a) identify MR imaging markers that change most-dramatically over time while computing treatment related changes post-LITT, and (b) develop a weighted temporal MP-MRI signature corresponding to successful / unsuccessful treatment, by combining the imaging markers identified as most contributory in evaluating treatment related changes at different time points post-LITT, in a cohort of epilepsy patients.

Diego Cantor¹, Terry Peters², and Ali Khan^2
1Robarts Research - Imaging Labs, Western University, London, ON, Canada, ²Imaging Labs, Robarts Research, London, ON, Canada

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy is characterized by a diverse aetiology which is not always evidenced in MRI. The radiologic assessment consists in the identification of hypo/hyper-intensities in temporal structures as well as the comparison (intensity, volume) of homologous structures in the left and right hemispheres. We propose an synergistic, automated method to systematically identify regional abnormalities. Our method extracts temporal lobe regions for every patient on four different quantitative MR maps; extract regional metrics; then compares each patient against a group of volunteers for every region and every metric. A set of abnormal regions is reported for every patient.

Trevor Andrews^1,2, Scott Hipko², Jay Gonyea², and Richard Watts^2
1Philips Healthcare, Cleveland, OH, United States, ²Department of Radiology, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT, United States

This study evaluates the test-retest reproducibility of a novel T1rho mapping acquisition in brain. The purpose is to assess the utility of this method for future clinical trials utilizing T1rho mapping in patients (e.g. with Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease).

Arjun Sethi¹, Nicholas G. Dowell², Neil A. Harrison¹, and Mara Cercignani^1
1CISC, Brighton & Sussex Medical School, Brighton, United Kingdom, ²CISC, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Brighton, United Kingdom

The purpose of this paper is to select the best combination of acquisition parameters to maximize the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between the substantia nigra and the surrounding white matter in magnetization transfer (MT) saturation maps. We used simulations based on quantitative MT models and the propagation of error equation to compute the CNR and extensively searched a 4-dimensional parameter space. Results show that the best CNR is found for the maximum MT saturation. In vivo data are used to support the results obtained with simulations.

Justin Stevan Lawley¹, Paul Gerald Mark Mullins², Sam Oliver¹, and Jamie Macdonald^1
1School of Sport Health and Exercise Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom, ²School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom

Travel to altitude exposes the traveller to mild - moderate hypoxia. This leads to the development of acute mountain sickness (AMS), symptoms of which suggest pathophysiological changes are occurring in the brain, oedema and potential swelling being two previously identified. We used Diffusion weighted Imaging and T2 calculations to study the development of oedema in AMS, and conclude that the initial oedema is intracellular only, and any swelling of tissue that occurs must do so by means other then vasogenic oedema.

M. Ayaz Khan^1,2, Jie Liu^1,2, Peiying Liu³, David Zhu⁴, Hanzhang Lu³, and Rong Zhang^1,2
1Cardiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ²Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Dallas, TX, United States, ³Advance Imaging Research Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ⁴Cognitive Imaging Research Center, Michigan State University, East Lancing, MI, United States

Quantitative blood flow measurement is essential for assessment of cerebrovascular function under normal and diseased conditions. Color-coded duplex ultrasonography (CDUS) and phase contrast (PC) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are two commonly used non-invasive techniques for measuring CBF. However, previous studies showed substantial differences between these two methods. Recent development in ultrasoud technology and quantification of blood vessel diameter using the edge-detection and wall-tracking method have significantly improved the accuracty of CBF measurement using CDUS. In the present study, we compared CBF meauserments using the PC MRI with the high-resolution 2-D CDUS methods.

Samuel Patz^1,2, Yansong Zhao³, Neel Madan⁴, Mark E. Wagshul⁵, James P. Butler^2,6, and Rafeeque A. Bhadelia^2,7
1Radiology, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ²Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ³Philips Healthcare, Columbus, OH, United States,⁴Radiology, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States, ⁵Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States,⁶Sleep Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ⁷Radiology, Beth Isarael Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States

Two MRI methods, 2D cine-PC and 1D Pencil Bean Imaging (PBI), were evaluated in healthy subjects for their ability to dynamically measure CSF flow during the physiological challenge of a Valsalva maneuver. Both fast cine-PC and PBI demonstrated expected changes in CSF flow with Valsalva maneuver in normal subjects. The real-time capability of PBI has the potential to detect Valsalva-related transient CSF flow obstruction in patients with Chiari I malformation.

Wenwen A. Han^1,2, Shu-Juan J. Fan^1,2, and Ed X. Wu^1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Manganese enhanced MRI (MEMRI) is effective for studying brain activity, tracing neuronal pathways and layer-specific cortical microstructures , but the invasiveness of Mn administration methods may cause neuropathological changes, contaminating in vivo MEMRI investigation of neural functions. This study demonstrated a surface diffusion method as a less invasive alternative with similar signal intensity enhancement efficiency to the intracortical injection methods previously employed in MEMRI. Besides reducing disturbance to the physiology of the injection site, this method also allows large dosage application for tracing long-distance connections, e.g. corticospinal pathway. One application is studying brain connectivity and its functional modulation.

Shu-Juan J. Fan^1,2 and Ed X. Wu^1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Binocularity is one of the most prominent characteristics of neurons in the visual cortex. It relies on both direct ipsilateral geniculocortical inputs and callosal projections from the contralateral cortex. Understanding these underpinnings of binocularity plasticity may shed light on new therapies for amblyopia. In this study, we hypothesize visual manipulation of left or right eye may exert different impact on right to left callosal transfter, which could be characterized by high resolution MEMRI utilizing manganese ion (Mn2+) as an anatomical and functional neuronal marker. Our results are consistent with the findings from eletrophysiological and c-fos staining experiments and demonstrated MEMRI as a powerful tool for probing corpus callosum functions and plasticity with efficiency, sensitivity and specificity.

Elaine L. Bearer^1,2, Joseph J. Gallagher², Aaron Gonzales³, XiaoWei Zhang², and Russell E. Jacobs^4
1Pathology, University of New Mexico, Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, ²Biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States, ³Pathology, University of New Mexico, Health Sciences Center, Abuquerque, New Mexico, United States, ⁴Beckman Institute, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States

Transport defects impact neuronal survival. We are developing and applying high-field MEMRI to detect and measure transport dynamics in living mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases. Here we present results from the aged double transgenic mice expressing human mutant amyoid precursor protein under control of the Tet-off promotor. Statistical parametric mapping and ROI analyses demonstrate decreased Mn2+ accumulation in the contralateral hippocampus and the medial septal nuclei in the forebrain after injection in the right hippocampus in aged versus young mice which is exacerbated with in the APP over-expressors who also display numerous Abeta plaques.

Russell W. Chan^1,2, Iris Y. Zhou^1,2, Shu Juan J. Fan^1,2, and Ed X. Wu^1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, ²Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

Manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) and Resting-state functional connectivity MRI (RSfcMRI) were employed to investigate functional and structural interhemispheric connections in the visual cortex of rodent model. Our results showed that cortical connectivity measured with MEMRI and functional connectivity measured with RSfcMRI are well correlated and the results suggested that a close coupling exist between structural and functional connections in the interhemispheric visual cortex

Mohammed Salman Shazeeb^1,2 and Christopher H. Sotak^1,2
1Radiology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, United States, ²Biomedical Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, United States

Diffusion-weighted NMR techniques have established that the ADC of cerebral tissue water decreases during ischemia. However, it remains unclear whether the ADC change occurs due to changes in the intracellular (IC) space, extracellular (EC) space, or both. Past works have measured compartment-specific diffusion coefficients using gadolinium as an EC MR contrast agent which reduces the longitudinal (T₁) relaxation time of the EC space. In this study, we investigate an alternative approach by using manganese (Mn²⁺), which acts as a calcium analogue. Mn²⁺ uptake by cells causes T₁ of IC water to shorten, thus allowing differentiation between the compartmental MR signals.

Mun Han¹, Seong-Uk Jin¹, Jae-Jun Lee², Kwan Soo Hong², and Yongmin Chang^1,3
1Medical & Biological Engineering, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea, ²Division of Magnetic Resonance, Korea Basic Science Institute, Cheongwon, Gyeonggi-do, Korea, ³Department of Radiology & Molecular Medicine, College of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea

The cochlear plays a vital role in the sense and sensitivity of hearing; however, there is currently a lack of knowledge regarding the relationships between mechanical transduction of sound at different intensities and frequencies in the cochlear and the neurochemical processes that lead to neuronal responses in the central auditory system. In the current study, we introduced manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI), a convenient in vivo imaging method, for investigation of how sound, at different intensities and frequencies, is propagated from the cochlear to the central auditory system. Using MEMRI with intratympanic administration, we demonstrated differential manganese signal enhancements according to sound intensity and frequencies in the ascending auditory pathway of the rat after administration of intratympanic MnCl2.Compared to signal enhancement without explicit sound stimuli, auditory structures in the ascending auditory pathway showed stronger signal enhancement in rats who received sound stimuli of 10 and 40 kHz. In addition, signal enhancement with a stimulation frequency of 40 kHz was stronger than that with 10 kHz. Therefore, the results of this study seem to suggest that, in order to achieve an effective response to high sound intensity or frequency, more firing of auditory neurons, or firing of many auditory neurons together for the pooled neural activity is needed.

Nathalie Just¹, Mario Lepore¹, Hanne Frenkel¹, and Rolf Gruetter^2,3
1CIBM-AIT, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, ²CIBM-AIT, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Department of Radiology, Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland

Activity-induced Manganese dependent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (AIM-MRI) enables an indirect measurement of neuronal activity following functional challenge. However, difficulties arising from the toxicity of Mn2+ ions and their ability to cross the blood brain barrier prevent a good reproducibility. As a result, AIM MRI has not shown its full value. We increased the physiological follow up of 6 rats by carefully monitoring blood pressure during MnCl2 and mannitol infusions. T1 mapping demonstrated a significant decrease of T1 in the barrel cortex following trigeminal nerve stimulation. Finally, histogram analysis allowed an optimized characterization of the synaptic activity of the barrel cortex.

Lydia Wachsmuth¹, Thomas Seidenbecher², Thomas Budde², and Cornelius Faber^1
1Clinical Radiology, Experimental NMR, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany, ²Clinical Radiology, Experimental NMR, Westfälische Wilhelms University, Münster, Germany

In this study we used Manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to investigate local accumulation pattern of manganese after systemic, fractionated administration by T1 weighted imaging and T1 mapping in a genetic rat model of human absence epilepsy, the Genetic Absence Epilepsy rats from Strasbourg (GAERS). We found slight, but significantly reduced T1 relaxation times within the somatosensory cortex of GAERS rat, but no significant differences within other structures of the thalamocortical network when compared to nonepileptic controls. Rather small T1 relaxation reducing effects indicate that systemic administration of manganese is not sufficient and intracranial application has to be performed in future studies.

Guillaume Radecki¹, Ileana Ozana Jelescu¹, Romuald Nargeot², Denis Le Bihan¹, and Luisa Ciobanu^1
1Neurospin, CEA, Gif sur Yvette, France, ²Institut de Neurosciences cognitives et intégratives d'Aquitaine, Université Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2, Bordeaux, France

Manganese enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) has been successfully used to map neuronal activity in small animals. This study demonstrates, for the first time, that MEMRI can be used to label activity-dependent Mn²⁺ uptake into the nervous system of a widespread model system in neuroscience, the Aplysia californica. Specifically, we show differences in Mn²⁺ accumulation into the neurons of ganglia coming from stimulated and non-stimulated animals. Such studies have the potential to provide insight into crucial neurological processes and into how specific molecular alterations give rise to modifications of neuronal circuitries.

Aditya N. Bade¹, Biyun Zhou², Santhi Gorantla¹, Jiangtao Luo³, Howard E. Gendelman¹, Michael Douglas Boska⁴, and Yutong Liu^4
1Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha., Omaha, NE, United States, ²Anesthesiology Department, Tongji Medical College, Huanzhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei, China, ³Department of Biostatistics, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha., Omaha, NE, United States, ⁴Department of Radiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha., Omaha, NE, United States

Mn2+ enhanced MRI (MEMRI) can be used to detect a number of neuropathological events. However, the mechanisms for Mn2+ signal enhancement in inflammatory pathobiological states remains controversial. Here, we applied intracranial LPS injection to create an inflammatory lesion and quantified signal enhancement after Mn2+ treatment. Combined with our previous in-vitro study of Mn2+ uptake in activated glial cells and neurons, we conclude that activated glia do not directly induce signal enhancement in MEMRI, but signal enhancement in MEMRI results from the increased neuronal activity induced by gliosis, mainly astrogliosis, stimulating neuronal Mn2+ uptake.

Geoffrey Topping¹, Andrew Yung², Paul Schaffer³, Cornelia Hoehr³, Thomas Ruth³, Piotr Kozlowski², and Vesna Sossi^1
1Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, ²MRI Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada,³Nuclear Medicine, TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Mn concentration is mapped in rat brain with MRI, PET, and autoradiography after intracerebroventricular or intraperitoneal injection. Images of the same animals in three modalities are compared. MR relaxivity change from baseline is measured with a Look-Locker sequence. Mn-52 was produced by proton irradiation of Cr foil and used as a radiotracer for PET and autoradiography. MRI has sufficient resolution to resolve structural details, but shows artifacts in regions of high Mn concentration. PET has poor resolution, but is more consistent than MRI with autoradiography results.

Esben Plenge¹, Dana S. Poole², Dirk H.J. Poot¹, Egbert A.J.F. Lakke³, Wiro J. Niessen^1,4, Erik Meijering¹, and Louise van der Weerd^2,5
1The Biomedical Imaging Group (BIGR), Radiology & Medical Informatics, Erasmus MC University Medical Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands, ²Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ³Anatomy, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ⁴Quantitative Imaging Group, Dept. of Imaging Science and Technology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands, ⁵Human Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands

In this study we demonstrate how super-resolution reconstruction (SRR) can be used to overcome the anisotropy issue and produce high-resolution isotropic volumes in acquisition times compatible with in-vivo experiments.

Alexia Daoust^1,2, Emmanuel Luc Barbier^1,2, Sylvain Bohic^1,3, Séverine Maunoir-Regimbal⁴, and Florence Fauvelle^4
1INSERM U836, grenoble, France, ²Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble institut des neurosciences, grenoble, France, ³European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, grenoble, France, ⁴IRBA-CRSSA, grenoble, France

MEMRI can be used for different applications such as tracing neuronal connections or functional imaging. However, the impact of Mn on brain tissues is still unclear. To evaluate the metabolic perturbations associated to an intracerebral injection of Mn, we obtained HRMAS NMR spectra from the rat hippocampus. Two effects were observed: a broadening of specific metabolites due to Mn paramagnetic effect and an important impact of Mn on the cerebral metabolism at the injection site. Both effects were not identical along hippocampus and across hemisphere, suggesting a concentration dependent effect.

Balasrinivasa R. Sajja¹, Biyun Zhou², Mariano G. Uberti¹, Larisa Y. Poluektova³, Howard E. Gendelman³, Michael Douglas Boska^1,3, and Yutong Liu^1,3
1Radiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States, ²Anesthesiology, Tongji Medical College, Huanzhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, ³Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, United States

Strain specific mouse brain MR atlases provide a coordinate space for spatial normalization and permit longitudinal quantitative analyses associated with aging and disease progression. Manganese enhanced MRI (MEMRI) enhances anatomic structures in the NOD/scid-IL-2R_c^null (NSG) mice. NSG mice can propagate human cell transplants and thus be used to study human disease. Image post-processing based on Laplacian operator was used to enhance brain structures boundaries without introducing artifacts. Thus, an in vivo MEMRI based NSG mouse brain atlas was generated. This atlas will be used to track structure-wise alterations during progression of HIV-1 in NSG mice implanted with human immune cells.

Jun-Cheng Weng^1,2, Liang-Chun Lin¹, Guan-Ming Chen¹, and Yeu-Sheng Tyan^1,2
1School of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan, ²Department of Medical Imaging, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan

Visual system is an important and well-known example of brain function. The well-defined relationship between animal visual cortical activity and light stimulation makes this system a unique model to study neuronal function and plasticity. Response to light stimulation has been investigated by non-invasive methods, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and blood oxygen level dependent functional MRI (BOLD fMRI). However, application of the above functional mapping methods to rat cortex remains challenging because stimulation should be given during scanning. Appropriate anesthesia and stable hemodynamic conditions must be maintained throughout the whole course of experiment. In the study, we sought to establish an alternative working protocol of applying manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to map the visual cortex following light stimulation. In the results, we have mapped rat visual cortex using MEMRI and have shown a clear relationship between manganese enhanced cortical regions and light-evoked activity. It will be potentially useful to study plasticity in surgically or genetically manipulated rat brains.

Aditya N. Bade¹, Santhi Gorantla¹, Larisa Y. Poluektova¹, Edward Makarov¹, Howard E. Gendelman¹, Michael Douglas Boska², and Yutong Liu^2
1Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha., Omaha, NE, United States, ²Department of Radiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha., Omaha, NE, United States

Although antiretroviral therapy has decreased the prevalence of HAD, overall prevalence of HAND has remained unchanged affecting from 39 to 52% of infected patients. Diagnosis of HAND could be improved if disease biomarkers were available either from cerebrospinal fluid tests or by neuroimaging. We used Mn2+ enhanced MRI (MEMRI) to evaluate changes in the brain of humanized mice due to HIV-1 Clade-C infection. Changes in Mn2+ uptake in hippocampus and amygdala indicated neuronal pathology in these regions. Since the function of these regions includes memory, abnormal signal intensity in infected mice suggests memory deficits may be found in these animals.