BrainTale’s noninvasive imaging analysis software, BrainTale-care, may be able to distinguish Parkinson’s disease from atypical parkinsonism. That’s according to data from an advanced MRI technique, called diffusion tensor imaging, that measures the diffusion of water molecules in the brain’s white matter. White matter contains nerve fibers…

A new ultra-high-performance brain imaging PET system called NeuroEXPLORER allows for the direct imaging of deep regions of the brain, that is, the brain nuclei, and may help diagnose and advance treatments for brain diseases, including Parkinson’s disease. The research was presented at the 2024 Society of Nuclear…

Heavy coffee consumption results in lower dopamine activity in the striatum, a brain region affected in Parkinson’s disease, and does not ease motor symptoms in early diagnosed patients who have not yet been treated for the neurological disease, a study has found. However, coffee consumption before brain imaging was…

A new brain imaging method may help diagnose mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), which according to some studies can be associated with a 50% higher risk of developing Parkinson’s. Available methods, like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), leave most cases of mTBI, or concussions, undiagnosed. They occur when a physical…

A feature on MRI images called the “swallow tail sign” has long been thought to correspond to a dopaminergic brain region clearly affected by Parkinson’s disease — but a new study suggests this is not the case. High-resolution MRI imaging shows only a partial overlap of these two regions, and…

Physical activity may be beneficial to brain health, including for people with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, by promoting increases in brain volume, a long-term follow-up study suggests. “Our study results indicate that even small behavioral changes, such as walking 15 minutes a day or taking the stairs…

In people with Parkinson’s disease, patterns of brain atrophy over time are consistent with patterns of alpha-synuclein spreading through the brain, an imaging study in patients suggests. The study, “Regional changes of brain structure during progression of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease – A longitudinal study using deformation…

Nearly all participants in the SPARK clinical trial had evidence of abnormal dopamine activity on a brain scan known as DaT-SPECT, for dopamine transporter single-photon emission computed tomography, according to a new study. Thus, these results suggest that DaT-SPECT — sometimes used as a biomarker in recruiting participants for clinical…

A newly launched five-year, $3 million collaboration, called ENIGMA-PD, will investigate brain imaging, genetics, and clinical data in a global study of Parkinson’s disease. Research efforts in more than 20 countries will be combined in the new project, created by the University of Southern California’s Mark and Mary…

A new microscope technology that allows real-time imaging of brain cell activity could have important applications in understanding the biology of the brain, and of brain diseases such as Parkinson’s. The technology was described in Nature Methods, in a study titled “Kilohertz two-photon fluorescence microscopy imaging…