White matter microstructure, essential for efficient and coordinated transmission of neural communications, undergoes pronounced development during the first years of life, while deviations to this neurodevelopmental trajectory likely result in alterations of brain connectivity relevant to behavior. Hence, systematic evaluation of white matter microstructure in the normative brain is critical for a neuroscientific approach to both typical and atypical early behavioral development.
Brain Imaging
Researchers unveil new strategy to correct for motion during MRI scans
Individuals undergoing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan often need to minimize movements for up to 10 minutes at a time to maximize scan quality. That can be challenging for many people.
Richard Davidson, PhD
Empathy, the ability to understand others’ emotions, can occur through perspective taking and experience sharing. Neural systems active when adults empathize include regions underlying perspective taking (e.g. medial prefrontal cortex; MPFC), and experience sharing (e.g. inferior parietal lobule; IPL).
Bradley T Christian, PhD
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by accumulation of beta amyloid (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau proteins, which neuropathology suggests follow distinct spatiotemporal patterns.
Andrew Alexander, PhD
Mapping White Matter Microstructure in the One Month Human Brain Legend: Matched coronal and axial slices through the of the population averaged diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging (NODDI) parameters …
Andy Alexander, PhD
Title: Investigating the Microstructural Correlation of White Matter in Autism Spectrum Disorder Legend: Graphical visualization (‘connectogram’) of brain white matter networks of the examined typically developing (TD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) groups. Individual white …
Richard Davidson, PhD
Title: Amygdala and hippocampal volume is reduced in children exposed to different forms of adversity Legend: Volumetric comparisons for the left amygdala (A) and left (B) and right (C) hippocampus. For each graph, standardized residuals controlling …
Frayed nerve bundle may spur autism’s motor, social deficits
A new study by Waisman Center investigators Andy Alexander, PhD, professor of medical physics and psychiatry, Janet Lainhart, MD, professor of psychiatry and Brittany Travers, PhD, assistant professor of kinesiology, indicates a nerve bundle at the base of the brain is structurally compromised in people with autism. The study was recently featured by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative.
Andrew Alexander, PhD
Title: Multiple contrast MRI with retrospective motion correction Legend: Representative example of multiple image contrasts from a new brain imaging technique MPnRAGE developed in the Alexander Lab in the Waisman Brain Imaging Core. The MPnRAGE …