The proposed project is a plan to add an imaging core to the UCSF Program Project Grant, entitled: Frontotemporal Dementia: Genes, Images and Emotions. This new core for this PPG is a response to the increasing complexity of imaging and increased use of imaging to answer questions related to FTD. Since the inception of this PPG, the number of techniques for brain imaging has expanded significantly. Our group began using structural imaging as the mainstay for anatomical assessment of FTD, and has moved on to embrace diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), arterial spin labelled perfusion (ASL) and intrinsic connectivity functional MRI (ICN fMRI), as well as FDG-PET and PIB-PET. A major goal for the next cycle of the PPG will be to investigate the relative utility of these various techniques, alone or in combination, for diagnosis and for delineating brain-behavior relatioships in FTD. Many of the cores and projects will make use of these various types of imaging modalities. While two other projects will investigate sophisticated new anaytic approaches for multimodality imaging (Project 2) and ICN fMRI (Project 6), this imaging core will facilitate use of images by these projects and the rest of the PPG by ensuring acquistion and archiving of high quality images, performing basic pre-processing, and providing basic imaging data and images. Specifically, Core E will: 1) collect and manage the following MRI sequences at 3Tesla in patients with bvFTD, nfvPPA, svPPA, IvPPA, CBS, PSPS, ALS, memory-predominant cognitive deficits (MEM), asymptomatic carriers of FTLD-causing mutations (MUT) and controls: MP-RAGE, FLAIR, T2-weighted, DTI, ASL perfusion, and ICN fMRI. We will also acquire [18FJFDG and [1 ICjPIB PET scans, 2) preprocess MR images including RF field bias and geometrical distortion corrections and coregistration of all images to each subject's native space, 3) process Tl-weighted images with FreeSurfer (FS) and derive cortical thickness and volumes, regional perfusion, FDG-metabolism, and normalized amyloid tracer binding values for standard ROIs in FS space, 4) consult with Pis and staff serving the other PPG projects and cores on incorporating imaging data into their analyses.
This core will be an important resource for this PPG as well as for the field of FTD in general, because it will establish a large archive of structural and functional images of various types in a very well characterized clinical sample. The images acquired will be compatible with images collected for other large-scale imaging projects, in particular ADNI, significantly increasing their usefulness for other reasearchers.
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