ALLSPICE
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A PET- MR study of occipital connectivity in DLB
IRAS ID
307160
Contact name
John-Paul Taylor
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
Patients with DLB frequently have visual disturbances such as vivid hallucinations. The exact cause of these remains unclear but they can cause significant distress. During normal vision, a number of brain regions are activated, as the brain makes sense of what the eyes are looking at. The occipital lobe (at the very back of the brain) is the area which is central to the early stages of processing of vision in the brain.
Brain imaging studies have found reduced activity in the occipital lobe in people with DLB. This reduced activity might relate to the problems that people with DLB experience with their vision. However, postmortem studies have found little disease related damage to this area. It is currently unclear what the cause of the low activity in the occipital lobe is. One possibility is that there is damage to other visual processing regions in the brain, and as a result, the occipital lobe does not communicate properly with these other regions, and thus has low activity.
A recently developed method, using a positron emission tomography (PET) magnetic resonance (MR) scanner allows us to investigate both the strength and direction of brain signals between different regions of the brain. We intend to use this to see whether the signalling between the occipital lobe and other visual processing regions is altered. If we find such alterations, we will also see if they are related to visual hallucinations or other visual problems in patients with DLB. If so, the analysis should reveal whether the reduced occipital lobe activity is a cause or consequence of the hallucinations.
This will help us with understanding the origin of these symptoms better so that we can develop better treatments for people with DLB.REC name
Wales REC 1
REC reference
22/WA/0101
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jan 2023
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion