Project information
Multimodal MRI approach to uncover clinical correlates and various disease trajectories in neuronal ?-synuclein diseases

The primary objective of this project is to utilize advanced models on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging data to describe the microstructural changes in dopaminergic and cholinergic white matter tracts among subjects at risk of neuronal α-synuclein diseases, including Lewy body dementia and Parkinson’s disease (with or without dementia). Subjects will be longitudinally studied at different clinical disease phases with variable temporal evolution of distinct disease phenotypes. This includes the motor predominant (Parkinson’s disease) and behavioural predominant (Lewy body dementia) phenotypes, i.e. disease subtypes with less or more malignant disease trajectories. The project aims to evaluate the relationship between baseline neuroimaging data and comprehensive psychological, behavioural, and clinical measures, as well as plasma and electroencephalographic (EEG) biomarkers and their progression with time.
The next aim is to incorporate other neuroimaging data, specifically T1 structural imaging as well as quantitative susceptibility mapping and neuromelanin-sensitive MRI sequences in relevant subcortical and cortical brain structures. This will provide complementary information to microstructural alterations in distinct cholinergic, dopaminergic and noradrenergic circuitries variably implicated in the pathophysiology of distinct subtypes of neuronal α-synuclein diseases.