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Attenuation correction and image reconstruction for hybrid MRI/PET

In cooperation with the Institute of Aerospace Medicine of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), we operate a hybrid MRI/PET scanner within [:envihab], a research facility to explore the effects of extreme environmental conditions on humans. Combined Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using hybrid PET/MRI scanners offers unique chances to contribute to a better understanding of processes in basic brain research and to improve the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric diseases. While PET provides metabolic information, MRI can provide anatomic information as well as information about physiological parameters, water diffusion, metabolite concentrations etc. Simultaneous acquisition of MRI and PET data correlates the data of the two complementary modalities both spatially as well as temporally and allows multifunctional and multiparametric imaging.

SleepLess Project: Imaging synaptic plasticity in therapeutic sleep deprivation for major depression

Patients with major depression benefit from therapeutic sleep deprivation. The causality of this clinically effective therapeutic measure is unknown and the underlying molecular mechanisms remain elusive. We hypothesize that prolonged wakefulness is associated with an increase in synaptic strength, and that the synaptic dysregulation is affecting long term potentiation in patients with major depression. The aim of the project is to examine the synaptic basis of the antidepressant effect of therapeutic sleep deprivation by Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging of the synaptic vesicle protein 2A (SV2A) as a measure of synaptic density in patients and healthy subjects as well as animal models of depression. Since both anesthesia and sleep are subject to compromise biologically valid outcomes when studying the synaptic basis of therapeutic sleep deprivation, we developed a fully quantitative PET imaging method for awake animals.