Brain-body interactions in systemic diseases: a survey from an imaging perspective

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Medical Imaging
• Systems Biology

Background:

• Diseases are increasingly understood as systemic, involving complex brain-body communication.
• Existing research focuses on biochemical links, but dynamic imaging of brain-body interactions is underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review brain-body axes from an imaging perspective.
• To cover impacts of brain diseases on the body and vice versa.
• To explore new frontiers in multi-organ data acquisition and integrative modeling.

Main Methods:

• Review of existing literature and imaging approaches.
• Categorization of studies into three paradigms: brain-to-body, body-to-brain, and integrated approaches.
• Focus on imaging techniques to visualize inter-organ crosstalk.

Main Results:

• Summarizes systemic disease manifestations across organs using imaging.
• Highlights the impact of neurological disorders (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's) on the body.
• Details how conditions like eye, heart, liver, and gut diseases affect the brain.

Conclusions:

• Imaging integration of whole-body networks offers a new paradigm for disease investigation.
• Advances in multi-organ data acquisition and modeling are crucial.
• This approach promises to enhance precision medicine, diagnostics, and therapies for complex systemic diseases.