title: Images of the brain: past as prologue.
abstract: The invention of the Anger scintillation camera and the development of 99mTc tracers brought about a tenfold increase in nuclear brain scanning between 1963 and 1973, an increase that plateaued with the introduction of x-ray computed tomography. A second growth curve began in 1976 at which time there were four PET centers in the United States, a number that grew to 60 worldwide over the next decade. PET, SPECT, MRI, and MRS are leading us into a new era of in vivo brain chemistry, based on regional bioenergetics and neurotransmission. The immediate impact is in epilepsy, stroke, brain tumors and the dementias, with psychiatric diseases becoming a major focus of research. Receptivity has become a biochemical as well as a psychological approach to mental functions. The finding of elevated D2 dopamine receptors in schizophrenia in living patients may be the forerunner of a new biochemical approach to psychiatry.
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D005544:Forecasting; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D011954:Receptors, Dopamine / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission; D013667:Technetium; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed / Q000266:history; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D011954:Receptors, Dopamine; D013667:Technetium