Clinical and Basic
Neuroscience Research
Training Program in Psychiatry

Neuroimaging Research

A large and active program of research using positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) is helping to bridge clinical and basic neuroscience disciplines, enabling preclinical hypotheses of psychiatric disorders to be tested directly in clinical populations.

The Neurochemical Brain Imaging Program, a national pioneer in the developmentof SPECT neuroreceptor imaging, has validated a variety of neuroreceptor and neurotransmitter neuroimaging methods as "in vivo assays" of human brain function based on careful, preclinical characterization in laboratory animals, non-human primates, and healthy human subjects. Established radiotracer methods now enable the study of dopamine D2 receptors, dopamine transporters (i.e., cocaine receptors), serotonin transporters (i.e., the fluoxetine or Prozac "receptor"), serotonin receptors (5-HT2 and 5-HT1A) benzodiazepine (i.e., GABA) receptors, and in vivo dopamine release.

The combined application of these various methods is now detailing a more complete picture of synaptic physiology in a host of neuropsychiatric disorders, including Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, depression, cocaine abuse, alcoholism, tic and obsessive-compulsive disorders, as well as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders.

Faculty related to Neuroimaging Research

Epperson
Jacobsen
Krystal
Malison
Mathalon
Sanacora
Seibyl
Staley

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