An Approach for Identifying Brainstem Dopaminergic Pathways Using Resting State Functional MRI

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 1; p. e87109
• Main Authors: Vytlacil, Jason, Kayser, Andrew, Miyakawa, Asako, D’Esposito, Mark
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 31.01.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Automation; Biology; Brain; Brain mapping; Brain stem; Brain Stem - metabolism; Brain Stem - physiology; Bromocriptine; Bromocriptine - pharmacology; Caudate Nucleus - metabolism; Caudate Nucleus - physiology; Cognition - physiology; Cognitive ability; Corpus Striatum - metabolism; Corpus Striatum - physiology; Dopamine; Dopamine - metabolism; Dopamine Agonists - pharmacology; Dopamine receptors; Dopaminergic Neurons - drug effects; Dopaminergic Neurons - physiology; Double-Blind Method; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Human subjects; Humans; Magnetic resonance imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Memory; Mental disorders; Mesencephalon; Mesencephalon - metabolism; Mesencephalon - physiology; Neostriatum; Nerve Net - metabolism; Nerve Net - physiology; Neural networks; Neural Pathways - drug effects; Neural Pathways - physiology; Neuromodulation; Neurosciences; Pharmacology; Physiology; Psychomotor Performance - physiology; Rest - physiology; Short term memory; Substantia nigra; Substantia Nigra - metabolism; Substantia Nigra - physiology; Time series; Ventral Tegmental Area - metabolism; Ventral Tegmental Area - physiology; Ventral tegmentum; Young Adult; United States > US; San Francisco California; California
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0087109

Here, we present an approach for identifying brainstem dopaminergic pathways using resting state functional MRI. In a group of healthy individuals, we searched for significant functional connectivity between dopamine-rich midbrain areas (substantia nigra; ventral tegmental area) and a striatal region (caudate) that was modulated by both a pharmacological challenge (the administration of the dopaminergic agonist bromocriptine) and a dopamine-sensitive cognitive trait (an individual's working memory capacity). A significant inverted-U shaped connectivity pattern was found in a subset of midbrain-striatal connections, demonstrating that resting state fMRI data is sufficiently powerful to identify brainstem neuromodulatory brain networks.