Andrew Alexander, PhD – Slide of the Week

Demonstration of the ability of MPnRAGE to correct for severe motion artifacts in a 7 year old girl.  Retrospective motion correction greatly reduced motion-induced blurring in both  structural T1-weighted images and quantitative T1 maps.  The correction greatly improves the reliability of brain imaging measurements in children.  The plots indicate the estimated amount of head motions that were corrected.

Doug Dean, III, PhD – Slide of the Week

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.

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.