Publications by authors named "Lanzenberger R"

This systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) sought to compare different antidepressant treatments for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) in order to facilitate evidence-based choices. A literature search of PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase from inception until April 13th, 2023 identified randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) of adults with depression who had not responded to at least two antidepressant trials; all RCTs had ≥10 participants per study arm, and participants with bipolar or psychotic depression were excluded. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Tool-2 was used to assess study quality.

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Deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) is an emerging Magnetic Resonance technique providing valuable insight into the dynamics of cellular glucose (Glc) metabolism of the human brain in vivo using deuterium-labeled (H) glucose as non-invasive tracer. Reliable concentration estimation of H-Glc and downstream synthesized neurotransmitters glutamate + glutamine (Glx) requires accurate knowledge of relaxation times, but so far tissue-specific T and T relaxation times (e.g.

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Alterations in brain structure are frequently observed in adults with early-treated phenylketonuria (PKU) compared to healthy controls, with cerebral white matter (WM) being particularly affected. The extent to which temporary elevation of phenylalanine (Phe) levels impacts WM remains unclear. We conducted a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled crossover trial to investigate the effects of a 4-week high Phe exposure on cerebral WM and its relationship to cognitive performance and metabolic parameters in adults with PKU.

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Functional Positron Emission Tomography (fPET) with (bolus plus) constant infusion of [F]-fluorodeoxyglucose FDG), known as fPET-FDG, is a recently introduced technique in human neuroimaging, enabling the detection of dynamic glucose metabolism changes within a single scan. However, the statistical analysis of fPET-FDG data remains challenging because its signal and noise characteristics differ from both classic bolus-administration FDG PET and from functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), which together compose the primary sources of inspiration for analytical methods used by fPET-FDG researchers. In this study, we present an investigate of how inaccuracies in modeling baseline FDG uptake can introduce artifactual patterns to detrended TAC residuals, potentially introducing spurious (de)activations to general linear model (GLM) analyses.

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  • PMDD is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome caused by hormonal changes, and the study investigates the effects of selective progesterone receptor modulation (SPRM) on brain white matter in affected patients.
  • Researchers used diffusion tensor imaging to compare the effects of ulipristal acetate (an SPRM) and a placebo on white matter integrity before and after treatment in a controlled trial.
  • Results showed that SPRM treatment did not significantly change white matter structure compared to placebo, although there were some differences in measurements that warrant further exploration.
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The dopaminergic system is a central component of the brain's neurobiological framework, governing motor control and reward responses and playing an essential role in various brain disorders. Within this complex network, the nigrostriatal pathway represents a critical circuit for dopamine neurotransmission from the substantia nigra to the striatum. However, stand-alone functional magnetic resonance imaging is unable to study the intricate interplay between brain activation and its molecular underpinnings.

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  • * In a study with 17 healthy volunteers, the relationship between anxiety during ketamine infusion and brain structure was explored, revealing that smaller hippocampal volumes were associated with higher anxiety scores.
  • * The findings indicate that the size of hippocampal subfields could help predict anxiety experiences during ketamine treatment and may also influence treatment outcomes in future therapies.
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  • * In a clinical trial with 22 male adolescents, participants received either active or sham tDCS while engaging in emotion recognition tasks, resulting in significant improvements in dynamic emotion recognition and specific brain activation associated with social processing.
  • * The research found that both tDCS groups displayed tolerability and improvements in ASD symptoms, but noted variability in electric field effects, suggesting that future studies might need individualized tDCS approaches for better results.
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Serotonin (5-HT) plays an essential role in reward processing, however, the possibilities to investigate 5-HT action in humans during emotional stimulation are particularly limited. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of assessing reward-specific dynamics in 5-HT synthesis using functional PET (fPET), combining its molecular specificity with the high temporal resolution of blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI. Sixteen healthy volunteers underwent simultaneous fPET/fMRI with the radioligand [C]AMT, a substrate for tryptophan hydroxylase.

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MAO-A catalyzes the oxidative degradation of monoamines and is thus implicated in sex-specific neuroplastic processes that influence gray matter (GM) density (GMD) and microstructure (GMM). Given the exact monitoring of plasma hormone levels and sex steroid intake, transgender individuals undergoing gender-affirming hormone therapy (GHT) represent a valuable cohort to potentially investigate sex steroid-induced changes of GM and concomitant MAO-A density. Here, we investigated the effects of GHT over a median time period of 4.

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Purpose: The human brain is characterized by interacting large-scale functional networks fueled by glucose metabolism. Since former studies could not sufficiently clarify how these functional connections shape glucose metabolism, we aimed to provide a neurophysiologically-based approach.

Methods: 51 healthy volunteers underwent simultaneous PET/MRI to obtain BOLD functional connectivity and [F]FDG glucose metabolism.

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  • Functional PET (fPET) is a new technique for examining brain metabolism and neurotransmitter activity, typically requiring invasive blood sampling to measure arterial input function (AIF).
  • This study developed a non-invasive method using cardiac IDIF from twenty healthy individuals, validating its accuracy against traditional methods through blood sampling while participants engaged in a monetary incentive delay task.
  • Results showed a strong correlation between the new IDIF method and AIF, demonstrating that this non-invasive approach provides reliable quantification of brain activity changes, making fPET more accessible in clinical settings.
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Deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) is an emerging magnetic resonance technique, for non-invasive mapping of human brain glucose metabolism following oral or intravenous administration of deuterium-labeled glucose. Regional differences in glucose metabolism can be observed in various brain pathologies, such as Alzheimer's disease, cancer, epilepsy or schizophrenia, but the achievable spatial resolution of conventional phase-encoded DMI methods is limited due to prolonged acquisition times rendering submilliliter isotropic spatial resolution for dynamic whole brain DMI not feasible. The purpose of this study was to implement non-Cartesian spatial-spectral sampling schemes for whole-brain H FID-MR Spectroscopic Imaging to assess time-resolved metabolic maps with sufficient spatial resolution to reliably detect metabolic differences between healthy gray and white matter regions.

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  • - The study presents a new functional positron emission tomography (fPET) method that quantifies glucose metabolism changes without requiring invasive arterial blood sampling, which can limit the technique's use.
  • - Two datasets were used to validate this method, involving participants performing different tasks while undergoing fPET scans, with strong correlations found between task-specific metabolic changes and traditional measurements.
  • - The new non-invasive approach shows reliable estimates of glucose metabolism changes and enhances the usability of fPET in research and clinical environments but sacrifices the ability to measure baseline metabolism.
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Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a mood disorder for which selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM) treatment has been demonstrated to be beneficial. The neural signatures of this treatment have been so far identified as greater fronto-cingulate reactivity during aggressive response to provocation, but no changes in terms of gray matter structure. White matter has recently been found to differ between patients with PMDD and healthy controls.

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  • COVID-19 restrictions had a significant impact on mental health, with concerns that these measures could worsen psychiatric symptoms in the population.
  • A study used structural MRI, serum analyses, and psychometric assessments to explore changes in brain neurobiology and mental health symptoms in patients with recurrent major depressive disorder and healthy individuals during the pandemic.
  • Findings indicated no significant changes over time in brain structure or depressive symptoms, suggesting that nine months of lockdown measures did not visibly affect brain morphology or mental health outcomes in the studied group.
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Self-reported sexual orientation of transgender individuals occasionally changes over transition. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we tested the hypothesis that neural and behavioral patterns of sexual arousal in transgender individuals would shift from the assigned to the experienced gender (e.g.

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Purpose: Positron emission tomography (PET) provides precise molecular information on physiological processes, but its low temporal resolution is a major obstacle. Consequently, we characterized the metabolic response of the human brain to working memory performance using an optimized functional PET (fPET) framework at a temporal resolution of 3 s.

Methods: Thirty-five healthy volunteers underwent fPET with [F]FDG bolus plus constant infusion, 19 of those at a hybrid PET/MRI scanner.

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Background: Among its pleiotropic properties, gender-affirming hormone therapy (GHT) affects regional brain volumes. The hypothalamus, which regulates neuroendocrine function and associated emotional and cognitive processes, is an intuitive target for probing GHT effects. We sought to assess changes to hypothalamus and hypothalamic subunit volumes after GHT, thereby honouring the region's anatomical and functional heterogeneity.

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Background: Sex-specific differences in brain connectivity were found in various neuroimaging studies, though little is known about sex steroid effects on insular functioning. Based on well-characterized sex differences in emotion regulation, interoception and higher-level cognition, gender-dysphoric individuals receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy represent an interesting cohort to investigate how sex hormones might influence insular connectivity and related brain functions.

Methods: To analyze the potential effect of sex steroids on insular connectivity at rest, 11 transgender women, 14 transgender men, 20 cisgender women, and 11 cisgender men were recruited.

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Introduction: Deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) and quantitative exchange label turnover (QELT) are novel MR spectroscopy techniques for non-invasive imaging of human brain glucose and neurotransmitter metabolism with high clinical potential. Following oral or intravenous administration of non-ionizing [6,6'-H]-glucose, its uptake and synthesis of downstream metabolites can be mapped via direct or indirect detection of deuterium resonances using H MRSI (DMI) and H MRSI (QELT), respectively. The purpose of this study was to compare the dynamics of spatially resolved brain glucose metabolism, i.

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Variants within the monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A, MAOA) and tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (TPH2) genes, the main enzymes in cerebral serotonin (5-HT) turnover, affect risk for depression. Depressed cohorts show increased cerebral MAO-A in positron emission tomography (PET) studies. TPH2 polymorphisms might also influence brain MAO-A because availability of substrates (i.

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  • The study investigates the impact of phenylketonuria (PKU) on white matter microstructure in adults, focusing on how it correlates with metabolic control and cognitive performance.
  • Using diffusion tensor imaging and H spectroscopy, researchers analyzed 30 PKU patients and 54 healthy controls, revealing significant reductions in white matter metrics like mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy in patients.
  • The findings indicate that these microstructural changes are linked to cognitive functions such as inhibition and cognitive flexibility, suggesting that PKU may have broader effects on brain structure and function than previously understood.
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  • The default mode network (DMN) in our brain shows different activity levels depending on the tasks we are doing.
  • When we focus on external activities, like playing Tetris, the brain uses less energy in certain areas, but when we think hard or use our memory, it can use more energy.
  • This study found that different brain networks affect how the DMN works, showing it is more complex than just being “off” during tasks and can change based on what we need to focus on.
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