Diagnosing parkinson‘s earlier: neurons under the MRI microscope

In Parkinson’s disease, iron-rich neurons in the midbrain die off. Detecting this could help us to diagnose Parkinson’s earlier, which would allow better treatment options. We used the magnetism of the neurons to measure them using MRI. Biophysical modeling of the MRI signal allowed us to determine the unexpectedly high impact on the signal of these neurons. We mapped these cells and were able to improve the clinical interpretation of MR images in this brain region. Our results represent an important step towards an earlier MRI-based diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.