PINS: "Imaging Brain Anatomy, Function and Disease in Common Marmosets"

Afonso C. Silva, Ph.D. Endowed Chair in Translational Neuroimaging Professor, Dept. of Neurobiology University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute Abstract: The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a small New World monkey that has gained significant recent interest in neuroscience research, due in great part for its compatibility with gene editing techniques, but also due to its tremendous versatility as an experimental animal model. As primates, marmosets retain the typical anatomical and functional organization of the human brain, offering new opportunities to systemically and comprehensively map the circuits and connectome of the primate brain. Neuroimaging modalities, including anatomical (MRI) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), complemented by two-photon laser scanning microscopy and electrophysiology, have been at the forefront of unraveling the anatomical and functional organization of the marmoset brain, both in health and in experimental disease models. High-resolution anatomical MRI of the marmoset brain can be obtained with remarkable cytoarchitectonic detail and has a crucial role in elucidating the pathophysiological mechanisms of neurological disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and stroke. Functional MRI of the marmoset brain has been used to study various sensory systems, including somatosensory, auditory and visual pathways, while resting-state fMRI studies have unraveled functional brain networks that bear excellent correspondence to those previously described in humans. Two-photon laser scanning microscopy of the marmoset brain has enabled the simultaneous recording of neuronal activity from thousands of neurons with single cell spatial resolution. In this talk, I will review the main results obtained by our group and our colleagues in applying neuroimaging techniques to study the marmoset brain in health and disease. Contact veb2012@med.cornell.edu for zoom link.