Igor Feinstein

1st Year Graduate Student

Department: School of Medicine

Graduate Program: Neuroscience

Advisor: Mary Kritzer


Abstract (rotation):

Preceptor: Dr. Helene Benveniste, Department of Medicine, Brookhaven National Laboratory

Title:  Adapting Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy for Non-invasively Measuring Amine Neurotransmitters and their Major Metabolites in vivo

Igor Feinstein and Helene Benveniste

I. Feinstein¹, M. Kritzer¹, P. Djuric², Y. Li², M. Yu³, S. Smith³, and H. Benveniste³,^4
1Neurobiology and Behavior, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York ²Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stony Brook University, ³Medical Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York ⁴Anesthesiology, Stony Brook University

The neurotransmitters dopamine, norepinephine and serotonin are implicated in nearly every major mental illness. However, the exact pathophysiology of many of these illnesses remains unknown. Efforts to study local neurochemistry in the living brain are hindered by the fact that current techniques (microdialysis, positron emission tomography) are inadequate in spatial and temporal resolution and/or cannot be ethically applied to the study of the brain in children due to being invasive or requiring the use or radiation.

A recent study reported using MRS in detecting neural stem cells in-vivo, which suggests that MRS is well-suited for detecting weak signals when coupled with advanced data processing, namely singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis. To that end, we are developing a non-invasive technique using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and novel data processing techniques (SVD and others) that will allow the non-invasive study of localized neurochemistry in-vivo. Our preliminary results show SVD analysis to be able to discern gross changes in neurotransmitter concentrations in the rodent brain in response to pharmacological stimulus.

Since neurotransmitters are present in extremely low quantities, our current research focuses on improving imaging hardware and methodology, developing and modifying data processing techniques and cross-validating with accepted methods with the ultimate goal of accurate and non-invasive quantification and localization of neurotransmitters in the living human brain.

Patent:

Title: Method and Apparatus for Wireless Monitoring of Subjects Within a Magnetic Field
Date Filed: April 1, 205
Authors: Igor Feinstein, James Kierstead, Helene Benveniste, Veljko Radeka
Status: Patent Pending # 11/097918