Medical Imaging Unit Seminar: Alterations in Cerebral Haemodynamics in Ageing, Dementia and Parkinson's disease

Medical Imaging Unit Guest Seminar Series

Speaker: Dr Laura Parkes, Senior Lecturer in Neuroimaging, University of Manchester

Abstract:

Arterial Spin Labelling is a non-invasive MRI technique that uses labelled water as an endogenous tracer to measure microvascular perfusion. The measurement is closely linked to tissue metabolism. By measuring at multiple time-points we can capture the dynamics of blood supply, in particular the arterial arrival time (AAT), the time for labelled water to travel from the labelling plane to the microvascular bed. This talk will present recent work demonstrating prolonged AAT in ageing, dementia and Parkinson’s disease, which may represent compensatory vasodilation as a means to maintain blood flow.

With a background in both physics (Oxford) and neuroscience (UCL), Dr Parkes’ research is focussed on developing novel imaging methods to study brain function. Following a PhD on quantitative measurements of cerebral blood flow using Arterial Spin Labelled MRI (UCL), she moved to the Netherlands to complete postdoctoral research using fMRI and MEG. In 2005, she returned to the UK to embark on work concerning mechanisms of brain plasticity following a New Investigators Award from the MRC. Structural and functional MRI is used to determine the evolution of tissue change within the somatosensory cortex and how this impacts learning.

As well as studying plasticity within the healthy brain, Dr Parkes has used similar imaging techniques to study neurodegeneration, in particular, the impact of microvascular damage. Applications in ageing, dementia and Parkinson’s disease are ongoing.

-------------------------------------

Find out more about the services and facilities at the Medical Imaging Unit at the School of Medicine, The University of Nottingham.

Learn more about our Radiological Sciences research.