JuSpace: A tool for spatial correlation analyses of magnetic resonance imaging data with nuclear imaging derived neurotransmitter maps

Abstract

Recent studies have shown that drug‐induced spatial alteration patterns in resting state functional activity as measured using magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI) are associated with the distribution of specific receptor systems targeted by respective compounds. Based on this approach, we introduce a toolbox (JuSpace) allowing for cross‐modal correlation of MRI‐based measures with nuclear imaging derived estimates covering various neurotransmitter systems including dopaminergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic, and GABAergic (gamma‐aminobutric acid) neurotransmission. We apply JuSpace to two datasets covering Parkinson's disease patients (PD) and risperidone‐induced changes in rsfMRI and cerebral blood flow (CBF). Consistently with the predominant neurodegeneration of dopaminergic and serotonergic system in PD, we find significant spatial associations between rsfMRI activity alterations in PD and dopaminergic (D2) and serotonergic systems (5‐HT1b). Risperidone induced CBF alterations were correlated with its main targets in serotonergic and dopaminergic systems. JuSpace provides a biologically meaningful framework for linking neuroimaging to underlying neurotransmitter information.

A candidate neuroimaging biomarker for detection of neurotransmission-related functional alterations and prediction of pharmacological analgesic response in chronic pain

“… 34 The NET atlas is a publicly available template of the [ 11 C]MRB PET brain parametric maps from 10 HCs (M/F: 6/4; 33.3 ± 10 years). 35 , 36 The SERT atlas is a publicly available template 37 of [ 11 C]DASB PET images of 210 HCs from the Cimbi database. 38 The µ-opioid receptor map is a publicly available template of [ 11 C]Carfentanil PET images of 89 HCs ( https://identifiers.org/neurovault.image:115126 ).…”

The correspondence between morphometric MRI and metabolic profile in Rasmussen’s encephalitis

“…The JuSpace toolbox provides an effective means through which to connect neuroimaging and neurotransmitter information, and its reliability has been recently verified( Dukart et al, 2021 ). Our results suggest that in RE patients, GM alternations across either RE–control whole-brain comparisons or ipsilateral–contralateral comparisons were significantly correlated with the intrinsic distribution of multiple neurotransmitters, which revealed potential neurotransmitter basis of regional vulnerability.…”

“…To evaluate the neurotransmitter basis underlying regional vulnerability of GM atrophy in RE patients, we extracted region-wise neurotransmitter distribution from the JuSpace toolbox ( https://github.com/juryxy/JuSpace ), which included dopaminergic, serotonergic, noradrenergic, and GABAergic neurotransmission ( Dukart et al, 2021 ). For each extracted neurotransmitter distribution map, we computed its Spearman’s rank correlations with between-group GM atrophy or ipsilesional versus contralesional GM alteration map in RE patients, respectively.…”

A candidate neuroimaging biomarker for detection of neurotransmission-related functional alterations and prediction of pharmacological analgesic response in chronic pain

“…The DAT map is a publicly available template of 123I-Ioflupane SPECT images (https://www.nitrc.org/projects/spmtemplates) from 30 HC without evidence of nigrostriatal degeneration(69). The NET atlas is a publicly available template of the [ 11 C]MRB PET brain parametric maps from 10 HC (M/F: 6/4; 33.3 ± 10 years)(70, 71). The SERT atlas is a publicly available template(72) of [ 11 C]DASB PET images of 210 healthy controls from the Cimbi database(73).…”