The accuracy of T1-weighted voxel-wise and region-wise metrics for brain age estimation.

Introduction: The brain age score has recently been introduced for robust monitoring of brain morphological alterations throughout the lifespan, prediction of mortality risk, and early detection of neurological disorders.

Methods: We assessed the brain age prediction accuracy of the widely used T1-weighted voxel-wise and region-wise metrics (i.e.

Effects of aging on brain volumes in healthy individuals across adulthood.

In this retrospective study, we analyzed the effects of age on brain volumes in healthy brains across adulthood. We investigated the correlations between brain volumes and age in the brains of 563 healthy individuals (age range: 20-86, 55% female) whose MRI scans and related information were drawn from the IXI database ( brain-development.org/ixi-dataset /).

Trends in steroid therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy in Japan.

Introduction: We conducted a study to reveal trends in steroid prescription for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients in Japan.

Methods: We asked patients (ages 5-20 years) identified in the patient registry and their clinicians about steroid therapy experiences. Regimen, dose, and starting age were compared among 3 subgroups according to prednisolone initiation year (2000-2004, 2005-2009, and 2010-2013).

MRI morphometry in Alzheimer's disease.

MRI based evaluation of brain atrophy is regarded as a valid method to stage the disease and to assess progression in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Volumetric software programs have made it possible to quantify gray matter in the human brain in an automated fashion. At present, voxel based morphometry (VBM) is easily applicable to the routine clinical procedure with a short execution time.

Neural basis of hierarchical visual form processing of Japanese Kanji characters.

Introduction: We investigated the neural processing of reading Japanese Kanji characters, which involves unique hierarchical visual processing, including the recognition of visual components specific to Kanji, such as "radicals."

Methods: We performed functional MRI to measure brain activity in response to hierarchical visual stimuli containing (1) real Kanji characters (complete structure with semantic information), (2) pseudo Kanji characters (subcomponents without complete character structure), (3) artificial characters (character fragments), and (4) checkerboard (simple photic stimuli).

Results: As we expected, the peaks of the activation in response to different stimulus types were aligned within the left occipitotemporal visual region along the posterior-anterior axis in order of the structural complexity of the stimuli, from fragments (3) to complete characters (1).

Intraventricular cerebrospinal fluid temperature analysis using MR diffusion-weighted imaging thermometry in Parkinson's disease patients, multiple system atrophy patients, and healthy subjects.

Purpose: We examined the temperature of the intraventricular cerebrospinal fluid (Tv) in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) and those with multiple system atrophy (MSA) in comparison with healthy subjects, and we examined normal changes in this temperature with aging.

Methods: Tv was estimated by magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) thermometry in 36 PD patients (19 males, 17 females), 34 MSA patients (17 males, 17 females), 64 age-matched controls (27 men, 37 women), and 114 all-age adult controls (47 men, 67 women; 28-89 years old). The volume of lateral ventricles was also estimated using FreeSurfer in all subjects.

A desensitization-selective potentiator of AMPA-type glutamate receptors.

1: We examined the effects of PEPA, an allosteric potentiator of AMPA receptors, on AMPA receptor kinetics. 2: PEPA did not affect the deactivation of glutamate responses but potently attenuated the extent of receptor desensitization without slowing the onset of desensitization in most of the recombinant AMPA receptors (GluR1-flip, GluR1-flop, GluR3-flip, GluR3-flip+GluR2-flip, and GluR3-flop+GluR2-flop) expressed in Xenopus oocytes. For the GluR3-flop subunit, PEPA attenuated the extent of desensitization and only weakly prolonged deactivation (1.