About this Research Topic

Background

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized as a movement disorder, complicated with Parkinsonian disorders such as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), drug-induced and other unspecified Parkinsonisms, comorbid with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Lewy bodies dementia (LBD). Beyond a variety of featured motor dysfunctions, non-motor syndromes including autonomic disturbances, smell and sleep disorders, and mood and cognitive disorders are presented throughout the prodromal and all clinical stages of Parkinson's disease. In the absence of a disease-specific biomarker, pharmacological and surgical treatment can be of poor efficiency for the relief of all PD syndromes, or do not respond to most of the Parkinsonian and comorbid disorders.

Over the past years, neuroimaging research in this field has progressed through world-wide neuroimaging collaborations, such as the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), the 4-Repeat Tauopathy Neuroimaging Initiative (4RTNI), the Incidence of Cognitive Impairment in Cohorts with Longitudinal Evaluation in Parkinson’s Disease (ICICLE-PD), the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) and the European ADNI. These neuroimaging initiatives have facilitated collaboration between researchers by providing a database of more than 5000 participants, who underwent neuroimaging assessments including multimodal MRI, PET, SPECT, etc., and neurological and psychological examinations, and genetic, blood and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers from multiple clinical centers across the world. Together with many other pilot studies, neuroimaging research now shows to be extremely important for the earliest diagnosis and management of PD and Parkinsonism, for a greater understanding of the pathophysiology of PD and Parkinsonism, and for the needs to indicate treatment response and improvement of effective treatment strategies.

This Research Topic welcomes research using all neuroimaging techniques in patients and healthy populations, animal models, particularly including, but not limited to the following:
1) Neuroimaging techniques and evaluations in improving early diagnoses and differential diagnoses of PD, prodromal syndromes, PD complications, PD comorbid dementia and Lewy bodies, Parkinsonian disorders such as PSP, CBD, MSA, and other Parkinsonisms;
2) Neuroimaging techniques in monitoring disease progression, assessing and predicting the severity and progression of PD and Parkinsonism;
3) Imaging assessments of structural and functional alterations in the brain, to improve understanding of pathophysiology and prognosis underlying clinical subtypes of PD-motor syndromes, and understanding of PD non-motor syndromes including, sleep and smell disorders, genetic factors, mood, behavioral and cognitive deficits, fatigue and pain;
4) Imaging markers for identifying dopamine, dopamine transporter receptor, and dopaminergic pathway;
5) Imaging studies of risk factors and genetic factors of PD, and also imaging studies in alpha-synuclein, Tau, and other biomarkers of PD and Parkinsonism;
6) Improvement and refinement of neuroimaging techniques, e.g. multimodal approaches, machine-learning based approaches, with relevance to early diagnosis and differential diagnoses of PD and Parkinsonism;
7) Therapeutic studies, clinical trials, case reports including pharmacological/non-pharmacological interventions, and evaluating treatment effects based on neuroimaging;
8) Review articles that describe the current state of the art in neuroimaging research in PD and Parkinsonism are especially welcome.

We aim to widely promote the early diagnosis and effective treatment of PD and Parkinsonism.

Keywords: Neuroimaging, Parkinson’s Disease, Parkinsonian Disorders, Biomarker

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