Joint pattern analysis applied to PET DAT and VMAT2 imaging reveals new insights into Parkinson's disease induced presynaptic alterations.

Most neurodegenerative diseases are known to affect several aspects of brain function, including neurotransmitter systems, metabolic and functional connectivity. Diseases are generally characterized by common clinical characteristics across subjects, but there are also significant inter-subject variations. It is thus reasonable to expect that in terms of brain function, such clinical behaviors will be related to a general overall multi-system pattern of disease-induced alterations and additional brain system-specific abnormalities; these additional abnormalities would be indicative of a possible unique system response to disease or subject-specific propensity to a specific clinical progression.