Aim: To investigate the severity of acute phase magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings and severity of acute illness as risk factors for disability after recovery from encephalitis.
Method: Children with encephalitis (n = 98; median age 6 years 10 months, interquartile range 3 years-11 years 6 months; 59 males, 39 females) treated in Turku University Hospital during the years 1995 to 2016 were identified in this retrospective cohort study. The acute phase (<2 months of symptom onset) brain MRIs were re-evaluated and classified based on the severity of neuroimaging finding by a neuroradiologist.
Visual attention can be automatically re-oriented by another person's non-predictive gaze as well as by symbolic arrow cues. We investigated whether the shifts of attention triggered by biologically relevant gaze cues and biologically non-relevant arrow cues rely on the same neural systems by comparing the effects of gaze-cued and arrow-cued orienting on blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal in humans. Participants detected laterally presented reaction signals preceded by centrally presented non-predictive gaze and arrow cues.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSubstance P (SP) is a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator that mediates its effects in the brain predominantly via the neurokinin-1 receptors (NK1Rs). NK1Rs and SP have been shown clinically to be involved in nausea and emesis after chemotherapy (CINV) and have been implicated preclinically in a range of neuropsychiatric disorders but unlike CINV their blockade in these conditions does not have proven clinical value. We investigated whether age and gender affects NK1R binding potential (NK1R-BP; an index of receptor availability) in the living human brain using PET and [18F]SPA-RQ, a highly specific NK1R antagonist.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: This study was conducted to develop a new positron emission tomography (PET) method to visualize neurokinin-1 (NK(1)) receptor systems in the human brain in vivo in order to examine their neuroanatomical distribution and facilitate investigations of the role of substance P, NK(1) receptors, and NK(1) receptor antagonists in central nervous system (CNS) function and dysfunction.
Methods: PET studies were conducted in 10 healthy male volunteers using a novel selective, high-affinity NK(1) receptor antagonist labeled with fluorine-18 to very high specific radioactivity (up to 2000 GBq/micromol) [F-18]SPA-RQ. Data were collected in 3D mode for greatest sensitivity.