How Relevant Are Imaging Findings in Animal Models of Movement Disorders to Human Disease?

The combination of novel imaging techniques with the use of small animal models of disease is often used in attempt to understand disease mechanisms, design potential clinical biomarkers and therapeutic interventions, and develop novel methods with translatability to human clinical conditions. However, it is clear that most animal models are deficient when compared to the complexity of human diseases: they cannot sufficiently replicate all the features of multisystem disorders. Furthermore, some practical differences may affect the use or interpretation of animal imaging to model human conditions such as the use of anesthesia, various species differences, and limitations of methodological tools. Nevertheless, imaging animal models allows us to dissect, in interpretable bits, the effects of one system upon another, the consequences of variable neuronal losses or overactive systems, the results of experimental treatments, and we can develop and validate new methods. In this review, we focus on imaging modalities that are easily used in both human subjects and animal models such as positron emission and magnetic resonance imaging and discuss aging and Parkinson’s disease as prototypical examples of preclinical imaging studies.