Potential Roles of Neuroimaging in Motor Neuron Disease

Abstract

Abstract Purpose of Review The review is intended to summarize and discuss the increasing roles and perspectives of neuroimaging in the clinical and scientific work-up of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other motor neuron diseases (MND). Recent Findings The applications of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) identify characteristic disease-specific patterns especially for ALS including its clinical subtypes. Guided by neuroanatomical pattern stratification, these MND-associated alterations could be detected by dedicated analysis parameters from MRI, including T1-weighted structural imaging and microstructural diffusion tensor imaging, in combination with additional MR techniques, to act as diagnostic and monitoring biomarkers. Imaging in MND increasingly makes use of machine learning-based analysis methods. Summary The conceptualization of (neuro-)imaging in ALS and other MND encompasses multiparametric technical approaches, also of regions outside the central nervous system, together with aspects of disease-specific pathophysiology which will further advance the field in future applications.