New York State Psychiatric Institute.
New York State Psychiatric Institute; Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University;
J Vis Exp. 2021 Sep 8(175). doi: 10.3791/62493.
The dopaminergic system plays a crucial role in healthy cognition (e.g., reward learning and uncertainty) and neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g., Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia). Neuromelanin is a byproduct of dopamine synthesis that accumulates in dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra. Neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging (NM-MRI) is a noninvasive method for measuring neuromelanin in those dopaminergic neurons, providing a direct measure of dopaminergic cell loss in the substantia nigra and a proxy measure of dopamine function. Although NM-MRI has been shown to be useful for studying various neuropsychiatric disorders, it is challenged by a limited field-of-view in the inferior-superior direction resulting in the potential loss of data from the accidental exclusion of part of the substantia nigra. In addition, the field is lacking a standardized protocol for the acquisition of NM-MRI data, a critical step in facilitating large-scale multisite studies and translation into the clinic. This protocol describes a step-by-step NM-MRI volume placement procedure and online quality control checks to ensure the acquisition of good-quality data covering the entire substantia nigra.
多巴胺能系统在健康认知（例如，奖励学习和不确定性）和神经精神疾病（例如，帕金森病和精神分裂症）中起着至关重要的作用。神经黑色素是多巴胺合成的副产物，在黑质多巴胺能神经元中积累。神经黑色素敏感磁共振成像（NM-MRI）是一种非侵入性方法，可用于测量那些多巴胺能神经元中的神经黑色素，提供黑质中多巴胺能细胞丢失的直接测量值，并作为多巴胺功能的替代测量值。尽管 NM-MRI 已被证明对研究各种神经精神疾病很有用，但它受到下至上方向有限的视野的挑战，这可能导致由于意外排除黑质的一部分而导致数据丢失。此外，该领域缺乏 NM-MRI 数据采集的标准化协议，这是促进大规模多站点研究和转化为临床应用的关键步骤。该方案描述了一个逐步的 NM-MRI 容积放置程序和在线质量控制检查，以确保获得覆盖整个黑质的高质量数据。
