Sponsored by the UCLA Brain Mapping Center Faculty
The focus of these talks is on advancing the use of brain mapping methods in neuroscience with an emphasis on contemporary issues of neuroplasticity, neurodevelopment, and biomarker development in neuropsychiatric disease.
Hosted By: Mirella Dapretto, Ph.D., Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA
 |
Elizabeth Aylward, Ph.D. Affiliate Professor of Psychology, University of Washington; Associate Director, Center for Integrative Brain Research; Seattle Children's Research Institute University of Washington |
This presentation will describe the potential for using neuroimaging measures as biomarkers in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Discussion will focus on the essential criteria for good biomarkers that can reliably assess disease progression. Neuroimaging studies in Huntington’s disease will be used as an example of research undertaken to demonstrate the utility of structural MRI measures as biomarkers for disease progression, from presymptomatic stages through diagnosis in this neurodegenerative disorder. The presentation will also include a description of the motor, cognitive, and psychiatric symptoms of HD and discussion of biomarkers other than structural MRI that may have potential, especially for assessing treatment effectiveness in the presymptomatic stages of HD.
