Simultaneous PET/MR Imaging of Human Brain Plasticity

Rupert Lanzenberger

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Neuronal Plasticity

Treatments

Behavioral: Tetris

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT03485066

PSY-NIL-0005

Details and patient eligibility

About

Background: Neuronal plasticity is the brain's ability to continuously adapt to experiences and learning of new skills. Although this affects multiple characteristics of the brain such as structure, function and metabolism, direct interactions between these aspects are largely missing.

Aim: Using recent advancements in neuroimaging we aim to identify novel relationships how neuronal plasticity is related across these characteristics.

Design: 40 healthy subjects will undergo two simultaneous PET/MR measurements at baseline and after 4 weeks. During the measurements a cognitively challenging task will be performed and the training group (20 subjects) will practice during the 4-week period.

Implications: We combine simultaneous PET/MR and novel task-specific PET imaging to study brain metabolism, structure and function in a single measurement session. This provides optimal sensitivity for assessment of multimodal neuroplasticity associations. Knowledge how cognitive training affects multiple characteristics of the brain will also increase our understanding of disorders like depression, dementia and brain injuries, since these are diagnosed with cognitive evaluations. Considering the vast usage of the applied imaging procedures in diagnosis and therapy monitoring, the thorough investigation of multimodal associations offers benefit for the interpretability of neuroimaging in clinical routine.

Full description

Methodological details: Each subject will undergo two PET/MR examinations. Imaging will include PET as well as acquisition of structural and functional MRI. Task-specific glucose metabolism will be quantified with the radioligand [18F]FDG. Gray matter volume and white matter microstructure will be assessed with T1-weighted and diffusion weighted MRI, respectively. Functional imaging will focus on functional connectivity during rest and task as well as cerebral blood flow as acquired with ASL.

Enrollment

40 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

21 to 30 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Age range 21-30 years
Right-handedness
Willingness and competence to sign the informed consent form

Exclusion criteria

History of or current physical, neurological or psychiatric disorder
History of or current substance abuse or medication including antipsychotic, antidepressant and antianxiety agents
Pregnancy or current breastfeeding
Contraindications for MRI-scanning (e.g., metal implants, steel grafts, etc), including dental implants causing signal artifacts
For subjects participating in earlier studies using ionizing radiation, the total radiation exposure of 30mSv over the last 10 years must not be exceeded, as specified in the Austrian legislation on radiation protection
Regular players of the video game Tetris (3 years before scanning).
Failure to comply with the study protocol or to follow the instructions of the investigating team