Imaging Brain Molecular Connectivity in Health and Disease

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About this Research Topic

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Background

During the last decades, advances in the field of neuroimaging have pushed forward our understanding of the central nervous system in health and disease. Modern neuroimaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion MRI, and electroencephalography (EEG) have made essential contributions to study the brain from a functional perspective, with increasing interest in the study of brain networks and connectivity. Brain molecular imaging, including positron emission tomography (PET) imaging and single-photon emission computerized tomography (SPECT), is a unique molecular tool to obtain direct quantitative information of biological processes such as cerebral activity, neuroreceptor distribution, and misfolded protein aggregation, covering a broad spectrum of biological and neuropathological processes.
Despite the development of methods and tools to analyse molecular neuroimaging data with multivariate connectivity methods, most molecular imaging studies are still based on univariate approaches. The application of either new methods of analysis or novel application of new imaging technologies using statistical multivariate approaches to extract brain connectivity could enrich connectivity estimates, thus providing valuable insights into brain metabolic and/or molecular features characterizing health, aging, and neurological/psychiatric diseases.

This Research Topic calls for papers focusing on the investigation of brain connectivity from a molecular brain imaging perspective in humans and animal models, in health, aging, neurological and psychiatric diseases. Work focusing on molecular brain connectivity, alone or in association with other metrics, such as resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI), structural MRI (sMRI and DWI/DTI), neurostimulation, EEG, MEG, and fNIRS is also welcome. The topic covers both preclinical and clinical studies.

We are seeking Research-, Review-, and Methodological papers describing the current or novel methods and applications of molecular brain connectivity, as well as addressing the current challenges and limitations.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Application of molecular connectivity in healthy controls and aging
- Application of molecular connectivity in neurological and psychiatric disorders
- Validation of novel analysis methods of molecular connectivity, at group- and single-subject level
- Cross-species validation of molecular brain connectivity approaches
- Use of molecular brain connectivity single-subject measures as a potential biomarker for brain disorder

Keywords: PET, SPECT, Molecular imaging, Connectivity, Analysis methods, System Neuroscience, Computational neuroscience, MRI, fMRI, sMRI, DWI/DTI, Resting-state, EEG, MEG, fNIRS, neurostimulation

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