Use of non-invasive neuroradiological methods in research of psychoactive drugs

Non-invasive neuroradiological methods like magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), blood oxgenation level dependent (BOLD) imaging recently entered into the areas of research in psychiatry, psychoactive drug development, as well as in clinical practice. fMRI can identify the regions of the brain associated with various functions, can monitor recovery, progression, and response to treatment and MRS can be used to study brain chemistry and metabolism. BOLD-imaging provides an indirect indication of neuronal activity. Future developments of different neuroimaging techniques are promising not only in surgical planning, functional assessment in brain tumor management, monitoring functional changes, but also in discovery of pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders and recognition of new pharmacological targets. Those techniques could be implemented in the process of drug discovery and identification of biomarkers which are clinically relevant for development of candidate drugs. Furthermore, those techniques establish the bridge between preclinical and clinical studies and allow the drug research in human in vivo.