Research Overview

Dr. Eidelberg directs a leading imaging research program in brain disease. His program is internationally recognized for developing novel imaging techniques to characterize and quantify neural circuits in neurodegenerative disorders and to study their modulation by treatment using functional imaging with PET and fMRI. Dr. Eidelberg and his colleagues have detected characteristic spatially distributed metabolic networks for Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and other neurological conditions. The identification and quantification of these pathways is important for diagnosing disease and for assessing the extent of functional impairment with disease progression. This approach has also proved useful including neuroprotective agents designed to modify the course of disease.

Dr. Eidelberg has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards from the National Institutes of Health and other funding sources, including the Fred Springer Award of the American Parkinson’s Disease Association. He is the author of over 350 scientific publications and has served on the editorial boards of Neurology (1996-2001), Movement Disorders (1999-2003), Journal of Nuclear Medicine (1999-Present), Current Opinion in Neurology (2001-Present), Clinical Neuroscience Research (Associate Editor, 2003-2007), Annals of Neurology (2006-Present), and Molecular Imaging and Biology (Associate Editor, 2007-Present). He also serves on the scientific advisory board of The Michael J. Fox Foundation (2004-Present) and the Bachmann-Strauss Dystonia and Parkinson Foundation (2009-Present), and is Scientific Director of The Thomas Hartman Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (2007-Present).

Research Description

Studies currently conducted at the Center for Neurosciences use functional brain imaging to map the abnormal neural circuitry underlying nervous system diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, torsion dystonia, and the dementias. The quantification of these circuit abnormalities in living patients is critical diagnostically and for assessing the efficacy of new therapeutic interventions.

Dr. Eidelberg and his team of investigators use functional imaging to study neurological disease from a variety of computational and behavioral perspectives. In parallel with these efforts, researchers at The Feinstein’s radiochemistry facility have helped to develop new radiotracer techniques to quantify neurochemical deficits associated with neurodegenerative processes. This research is important for the development of new approaches to the treatment of these conditions. Likewise, investigators at the magnetic resonance center are developing new imaging applications to measure abnormal pathway connectivity in health and disease.

Current studies include:

• Abnormal brain circuitry in normal aging and Parkinson’s disease
  Investigators in the Functional Brain Imaging Laboratory are mapping the functional/anatomical circuitry underlying motor performance and learning in healthy aging and Parkinson’s disease.

• Causes of cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease 
  Investigators are elucidating the pathophysiology of certain types of cognitive dysfunction and mood disorder in Parkinson’s disease and related disorders.
   
• Brain abnormalities pre-manifest carriers of genetic mutations for brain disease 
  Neuroscientists are using novel imaging methods to identify functional and anatomical abnormalities in the brains of individuals genetically at risk for brain diseases including Huntington’s disease, dystonia, and familial Parkinson’s disease.
   
• Brain chemistry changes and treatment efficacy
  Researchers are investigating the regulation of key neurotransmitters to understand how brain chemistry relates to network modulation and therapeutic outcome. Investigators are also using functional imaging techniques to quantify the central effects of levodopa as well as the time course of medication washout on brain function.  Investigators are also utilizing network imaging techniques to shed light on mechanisms of treatment side effects (levodopa-induced dyskinesias) and novel therapies like gene therapy.  
   
• Natural history of neurological diseases 
  Researchers in the Center are involved in longitudinal studies of Parkinson's and Huntington’s disease to study the time course of network changes over time and the relationship of these changes to other disease biomarkers.
   
• Abnormal protein aggregation in neurodegenerative disease
  Investigators are studying the time course of abnormal protein aggregation in Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. They are also examining the relationship of these changes to metabolic network activity and cognitive functioning in these disorders.
   
• Multi-modal imaging of brain function 
  Physicists and neuroscientists in the Center have developed a novel algorithm based on anatomical information from MRI to correct for the effect of brain atrophy, one of the major obstacles to accurate PET measurements in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. A team of investigators are studying the impact of these structural changes on abnormal brain network activity in pre-manifesting mutation carriers for Huntington’s disease.
   
• Collaborations within the NS-LIJ Health System
  Our Center maintains extensive collaborations with the Center for Genomics and Human Genetics, the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders, the Center for Translational Psychiatry, and the Center for Patient-Oriented Research at The Feinstein. Many investigators also are active as clinical specialists within the Health System, with close interactions with the Departments of Medicine and Neurology.