Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Measuring Brain Serine With Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy At 3.0 Tesla, Homa Javadzadeh

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) non-invasively measures regional human brain chemistry in vivo, providing concentration estimates for several metabolites in a pre-selected region of interest. MRS has been applied to investigations of disease-related metabolic and neurochemical alterations in schizophrenia since the early 90’s.

The objective of this research is to implement a metabolite-selective MRS method to quantify endogenous concentrations of human brain serine. Serine is a naturally-occurring amino acid and an important co-modulator of the N-Methyl D-aspartic Acid (NMDA) glutamate receptor. Glutamate abnormalities have been implicated in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia, especially its so-called negative and cognitive symptoms, which can …

Brain Maturation, Poverty And Social Exclusion: Shifting Paradigms Of Psychopathology, Amresh Srivastava

Psychiatry Presentations

Abstract for lecture

Poverty is a major risk factor for mental disorders. Neuroimaging studies show path are breaking findings to explain why ppeople living in poverty suffer from improper development and maturation of brain due to neuronal loss. It sets in much before the child is born and leads to increased vulnerability for mental disorders.

Recent findings show that changes in brain structure and function due to lack of brain maturation is directly related to poverty. A number of these changes are end result of neuronal survival in the most fundamental neuronal matrix. These findings along with other biological correlates …