With the structural and functional neuroimaging studies on alcohol use disorders, the neurobiology of alcohol use disorder can now be directly measured in vivo. This article reviews the findings of structural and functional neuroimaging studies related to alcohol use disorder. Issues about intoxication, dependence, withdrawal, abstinence, organic change induced by chronic alcohol use, neurochemistry and craving are discussed and its clinical implications and future direction of neuroimaging studies are also suggested.
Functional Neuroimaging ; Neurobiology ; Neurochemistry ; Neuroimaging*

No abstract available.
Functional Neuroimaging ; Neurotology

No abstract available.
Epilepsy* ; Functional Neuroimaging*

No abstract available.
Functional Neuroimaging ; Irritable Bowel Syndrome ; Tryptophan

OBJECTIVES: Abnormalities in the frontal lobe have been consistently suggested in the pathophysiology of depression. The purpose of this review is to discuss the relationship between the frontal lobe and depression. METHODS: Recent researches on the frontal lobe in depression were reviewed and abnormalities in this region were considered within the context of modern functional neuroanatomy. RESULTS: This paper reviewed evidence strongly implicating the frontal lobe as a key brain structure in depression. CONCLUSION: Taken together, these abnormalities in the function of the frontal lobe implicate interconnected neural circuits in depression and offer suggestions for the themes of future research and treatment. Further research is needed to investigate the association between emotion and the brain in the paradigm of "affective neuroscience".
Brain ; Depression* ; Frontal Lobe* ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Neuroanatomy

OBJECTIVES: Patients with organic brain lesion can produce unique slow waves (delta and theta) in the EEG. Basic assumption of this study was that the low resolution electro magnetic tomography (LORETA), an inverse source localization program, can provide functional images representing increased slow wave activity in these patients compared to normal subjects. METHODS: The current study was performed by 18 channels digital EEG for 10 patients whose organic deficit have been visually confirmed by CT or MRI. The source images of slow wave (1-7 Hz) frequency were produced by LORETA-key program. RESULTS: We found that in eight out of ten subjects, LORETA successfully found out the source regions which were very closely matched to their original brain lesions. However in two subjects whose organic brain lesions were too small (<1 cm) and located out of gray matter, we failed to find any increased slow wave activity compared with normal control. CONCLUSION: We can conclude that LORETA could be a useful method to provide functional imaging in patients with gray matter deficits in their brain. Its usefulness and limitations were discussed.
Brain* ; Electroencephalography ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Humans ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Magnets* ; Neuroimaging*

We report 11 patients who developed dystonia and parkinsonian symptoms and signs. All of them developed the onset of parkinsonian symptoms 1 month to about 50 years(median: 2 yrs) after the onset of dystonia. Six of 11 patients developed dystonia affecting a hand; two affecting a foot; one affecting the neck; one affecting bilateral hands and a foot; one affecting a foot, trunk and neck Their parkinsonian symptoms had progressed very slowly and responded well to the levodopa treatment. Beside, none of them had clinical features suggestive of parkinsonian-plus syndrome. These findings suggest that they may have pathological changes confined to the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system as those with idiopathic Parkinson's disease. However, no change or worsening of dystonia after levodopa treatment suggest that they may have additional lesions out-side of the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system. More pathological studies and functional brain imaging studies are needed to define the exact pathogenesis of clinical syndrome of dystonia-parkinsonism.
Dystonia ; Foot ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Hand ; Humans ; Levodopa ; Neck ; Parkinson Disease

Recently, social cognition is becoming a hot issue in field of schizophrenia research. There are increasing demands for more clear definition of terms and knowledge about neurobiology of social cognition in schizophrenia. One of the reasons why it receives so much attention would be its role of predicting the functional outcomes of schizophrenia patients. The purpose of this article is to review and summarize the concepts and neural correlates of social cognition in schizophrenia. Functional brain imaging studies as well as behavioral studies were reviewed.
Cognition* ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Humans ; Neurobiology* ; Schizophrenia* ; Theory of Mind

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic source imaging (MSI) are becoming increasingly important modalities in the functional neuroimaging of children. MEG is the magnetic equivalent of electroencephalography (EEG) and is thus capable of noninvasively characterizing neuronal activity on a millisecond time scale. MSI combines this functional information provided by MEG with the high anatomic detail of conventional magnetic resonance imagings. Considerable effort is placed on analyzing the configuration and number of spike waves by MEG that relate to a primary epileptiform discharge. Such MEG spike clusters are corroborated now by intraoperative invasive subdural grid monitoring that show good correlation in the majority of cases. Another important role of MEG relates to the mapping of critical regions of brain function using known paradigms for speech, motor, sensory, visual, and auditory brain cortex. In this review, I would introduce the background of MEG, data acquisition and analysis, and clinical application of MEG in children with epilepsy.
Brain ; Child* ; Electroencephalography ; Epilepsy ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Humans ; Magnetoencephalography* ; Neurons

OBJECTIVES: The power spectral analysis of electroencephalogram has been widely used to reveal the pathophysiology of the alcoholic brain. However, the results were not consistent and the three dimensional study can be hardly found. The purpose of this study was to investigate characteristics of the three dimensional electroencephalographic (EEG) activity of alcohol dependent patients using standardized low resolution electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA). METHODS: The participants consisted of 30 alcohol dependent patients and 30 normal healthy controls. All the participants were males who had refrained from alcohol at least one month and were not taking any medications. Thirty two channel EEG data was collected in the resting state with eyes-closed condition during 30 seconds. The three dimensional data was compared between two groups using sLORETA for delta, theta, alpha, beta1, beta2, and beta3 frequency bands. RESULTS: sLORETA revealed significantly increased brain cortical activity in alpha, beta1, beta2, and beta3 bands each in alcohol dependent patients compared to normal controls. The voxels showing the maximum significance were in the left transverse temporal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, left anterior cingulate, and left fusiform gyrus in alpha, beta1, beta2, and beta3 bands respectively. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that chronic alcohol intake may cause neurophysiological changes in cerebral activity. Therefore, the measuring of EEG can be helpful in understanding the pathophysiology of cognitive impairements in alcohol dependence.
Alcoholics ; Alcoholism ; Brain ; Electroencephalography ; Functional Neuroimaging ; Humans ; Magnets ; Male