# Core 3: Translational Neuroimaging Core

> **NIH NIH U24** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $167,406

## Abstract

Project Summary
Non-invasive neuroimaging procedures have provided instrumental insights into our understanding of how
chronic exposure to ethanol can affect brain structure and function. Through comparisons of brain macroscopic
structure in alcoholics and age-matched controls, it has been possible to detect changes in brain tissue
volume, and its recovery following abstinence from alcohol. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) experiments have
provided information on cellular-level changes in white matter microstructure that result from chronic exposure
to ethanol, often prior to the appearance of macroscopic changes. In addition to these structural changes, it
has also been possible to characterize physiological changes associated with brain function in functional MRI
experiments. However, in all of these neuroimaging approaches, consistent systematic confounding factors
plague the biological interpretations of findings. First, it is not possible to accurately quantify ethanol exposure,
beginning at the initiation of drinking, in human subjects. Second, confounding factors such as polydrug use,
nutrition, frequency of withdrawals, and other environmental insults are difficult to discern from the effects of
ethanol exposure on brain structure and function. Third, the interpretation of functional neuroimaging
experiments can be difficult to cast in terms of neural function, e.g., as measured using traditional
neurophysiological methods. In order to address these deficits in knowledge, we propose a Translational
Neuroimaging Core to perform MRI experiments on nonhuman primate research subjects at the Oregon
National Primate Research Center's nonhuman-primate-dedicated MRI facility. These experiments have been
designed to directly support projects in the INIA-S as well as the INIA-N consortia. Aim 1 is to provide data to
buttress INIA-S project 8, in which glucocorticoid antagonists will be administered to nonhuman primate
research subjects, and the resting-state functional MRI changes associated with the resulting changes in
drinking patterns will be determined. Aim 2 is to support an INIA-N project proposed by A. Pfefferbaum, E.
Sullivan, and N. Zahr, in which brain structural and functional changes associated with repeated episodes of
abstinence and drinking will be determined in rhesus macaques to bridge data acquired in rodent and human
species. Aim 3 is to support INIA-S project 7, to use functional MRI to directly monitor changes in brain circuitry
induced through the influence of designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) in the
striatum, and to characterize the effects of DREADDs-induced neural activity changes on functional
connectivity measurements. Last, in a subset of control animals, quantitative comparisons will be performed
between MRI-determined functional connectivity and connectivity assessed with focal infrared neural
stimulation of regions known to be sensitive to previous exposure to ethanol, with the goal o...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9858164
- **Project number:** 5U24AA025473-04
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Christopher D Kroenke
- **Activity code:** U24 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $167,406
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-02-15 → 2022-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9858164

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9858164, Core 3: Translational Neuroimaging Core (5U24AA025473-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9858164. Licensed CC0.

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