Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory (FNL)

The FNL has three main research objectives: (1) to describe endophenotypes based on neural activity enabling preclinical prediction of neurodegenerative diseases, with emphasis on Parkinson and Alzheimer’s disease, with the dual aim of improving diagnosis and commencing therapy in preclinical stages; (2) to define the areas involved in complex perceptual and movement tasks in healthy individuals and Parkinson and Alzheimer’s patients, in order to improve the efficiency of rehabilitation programs; (3) to develop new imaging and analysis methods in order to address goals 1 and 2 with greater sensitivity, specificity and resolution.

The FNL utilizes a 3.0 Tesla Siemens Trio MRI scanner, located within the University of Navarra Hospital, equipped with stimulus delivery and monitoring systems for fMRI research. Other available equipment includes a transcranial magnetic stimulator Magstim Rapid 2, with stereotactic localization software Brainsight.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is used to map and probe neural circuits, and associated cognitive, affective, perceptual and behavioral processes thought to be disrupted in these conditions. The resultant identification and characterization of abnormal patterns of activity in specific brain circuits provides a foundation for the development of more targeted, biologically-based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. The development of novel methods of MRI image acquisition and analysis constitutes another focus of the laboratory.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation or rTMS is a neurophysiological technique, capable of changing the activity in a brain area, even beyond the duration of the rTMS application itself. In other words, it seems possible to make a given brain area work more or less for a period of minutes, or even weeks when rTMS is applied repeatedly several days in a row. This has opened up the possibility of using rTMS for therapy of some illnesses in neurology, rehabilitation, and psychiatry.

Current research projects include:

1. Investigation of the basic mechanisms of temporal and spatial sensory perception altered in basal ganglia disorders.
2. Noninvasive perfusion MRI using arterial spin labeling (ASL), including sequence development and application to Parkinson’s Disease.
3. Evaluation of the efficiency of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in neuronal plasticity during movement learning, applied to basal ganglia disorders and ischemic brain disease.
4. Study of decision making brain areas and the involvement of the dopaminergic system.
5. Analysis of oscillatory activity generators in the human brain, with the aim of understanding basic perceptual neuronal processes in neurodegeneration.
6. Development of genetic and neuroimaging biomarkers, searching for patterns of brain metabolism and dopaminergic dysfunction, in Familial Parkinsonism, in collaboration with the Neurogenetics Laboratory of CIMA.

In addition, the FNL provides support for functional neuroimaging research of other groups at the University of Navarra.

The FNL collaborates with several groups of researchers within CIMA, the University of Navarra Hospital, the Physics Department and the Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Técnicas de Gipuzkoa (CEIT), the IESE Business School, as well as researchers at other institutions such as the Magnetic Resonance in Biomedicine group at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, the Center for Functional Neuroimaging at the University of Pennsylvania, the Wellcome Trust Center for Neuroimaging at University College London and the Laboratoire de Neurosciences Cognitives et Imagerie Cérébrale (LENA), Hôpital de La Salpêtrière in Paris.