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TUTORIAL: Clinical PET - Neurology
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Topics:
PET and Brain Function
We begin by looking at the mapping of cerebral function. We will perform a variety of stimulations on the normal subject and then examine the corresponding PET images.
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Shown above are a series of four slices from the resting brain.
We will now examine the effects of various external stimuli on the PET scan image. The first stimulation is auditory, i.e. the subject will listen to some music.
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Notice the increased activity in the PET image containing the auditory cortex. Note that nonverbal stimuli (music) predominantly activates the nondominant (right) hemisphere. Simultaneous stimulation with language and music would cause a more bilateral activation of the auditory cortex.
Next, we will expose the subject to visual stimulation consisting of both pattern and color.
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Notice the increased activity in the stimulated brain PET image (arrowhead). This region of increased activity corresponds to the primary visual cortex.
The subject now must perform a "thinking" task.
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Notice the increased activity in the stimulated brain PET image (arrowhead). This region of increased activity corresponds to the frontal cortex.
Our next stimulation requires the subject to remember an image for later recall.
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Notice the increased activity in the stimulated brain PET image (arrowhead). This region of increased activity corresponds to the hippocampal formation, a region of the brain implicated in learning and memory.
We will now examine motor stimulation of the brain by asking the subject to hop up and down on his right foot.
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The motor task of a movement of the right foot caused cortical metabolic activation of the left motor strip (horizontal arrowhead) and supplementary motor cortex (vertical arrow, top).
Credits
Material for this section was kindly provided by:Michael E. Phelps, Ph.D.
Dept. of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology
UCLA School of Medicine
John Mazziotta, M.D., Ph.D.
Dept. of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology and
Dept. of Neurology
UCLA School of Medicine
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