The effect of ageing on grey and white matter reductions in schizophrenia.

Total brain volume and, in particular gray matter (GM) volume is reduced in patients with schizophrenia and recent studies suggest there is greater progressive loss of brain volume in the patients with schizophrenia than in normal controls. However, as the longitudinal studies do not include life-long follow-up, it is not clear if this occurs across the lifespan or only in the early phase of the illness. In this study we investigated this by studying the effects of age on brain tissue volumes in schizophrenia (n=34, age range=27-65 years)to test the prediction that there is a progressive loss in grey matter volume with increasing age in patients compared to healthy controls (n=33, age range=18-73 years).

In vivo detection of microglial activation in frontotemporal dementia.

Using positron emission tomography and [(11)C](R)-PK11195, a marker of "peripheral benzodiazepine sites" that is upregulated on activated microglia during progressive tissue pathology, we show increased binding of [(11)C](R)-PK11195 in frontotemporal lobar degeneration in the typically affected frontotemporal brain regions. This implies the presence of an active glial response reflecting progressive neuronal degeneration. It also suggests that increased [(11)C](R)-PK11195 binding, previously demonstrated for Alzheimer's disease, may occur independently from increased amyloid plaque formation, given that it is not a characteristic feature of frontotemporal lobar degeneration.

Automatic segmentation of the brain and intracranial cerebrospinal fluid in T1-weighted volume MRI scans of the head, and its application to serial cerebral and intracranial volumetry.

A new fully automatic algorithm for the segmentation of the brain and total intracranial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from T(1)-weighted volume MRI scans of the head, called Exbrain v.2, is described. The algorithm was developed in the context of serial intracranial volumetry.