Grant: Project Grant

Neurotransmitter receptors support the propagation of signals in the human brain. How receptor systems are situated within macroscale neuroanatomy and how they shape emergent function remains poorly understood, and there exists no comprehensive atlas of receptors. Here we propose to collate positron emission tomography data from healthy individuals to construct a whole-brain 3-D normative atlas of receptors and transporters across multiple neurotransmitter systems. The atlas will then be extensively validated and shared with the wider research community via an easy-to-use toolbox. Finally, we will use the atlas to ask two key questions about the chemical communication in the brain. First, we will characterize inter-individual differences in receptor and transporter topographies. Second, we will use the atlas to build the first neurotransmitter-augmented biophysical model of brain dynamics. Collectively, this work will investigate how chemoarchitecture shapes brain structure and function, providing a new direction for studying multi-scale brain organization.