Clinical & Functional Neuroimaging: A window on the living brain Clara Moisello M Felice Ghilardi IMAGING THE LIVING BRAIN Brain Structure Skull, Brain anatomy, Vessels Spinal cord Brain Function At Rest, During tasks Structure: Skull X-Rays Absorbed by Calcium, identify bone structures and calcifications Structure: Ventricles Pneumoencephalography Substitution of CSF with air It visualizes the ventricular system Structure: Brain Vessels Angiography X-ray and injection of radio-opaque material Structure: Brain Vessels Angiography Anterior & Lateral views of L carotid Artery Structure: Brain Vessels Angiography Diagnosis: Subarachnoidal hemorrhage, Intracerebral Hemorrhage Tromboembolic stroke, to evaluate carotid vessels and intracranial vessels Arterial dissections Vasculitis Tumors at the base of the skull Interventional neuroradiology: Embolization of vascular malformations and tumors Occlusion of carotid by detachable balloons Angioplasty Type of imaging Anatomic Computed Tomography (CT) Tissue density Xenon-enhanced CT Xenon concentration in Blood Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Many properties of tissue Functional Positron Emission Tomography (PET) tracers in blood/tissue Single photon emission CT (SPECT) tracers in blood/tissue fMRI BOLD signal hd-EEG Sum of neuronal discharge MRA Blood Flow MEG Magnetic fields of neuronal discharge Structure: Brain Regional Anatomy CT scan Transmission of X-rays through tissue measured by 180°-positioned XRay detector Important parameters: -Matrix Size (up to 512X512) -Field Of View (FOV, ex 20 cm) -Slice Thickness (down to