Special Issue on Imaging of Neuronal Environments

Dear Colleagues, I am happy to share with you the following special issue on Brain Science. Please don’t hesitate to contact me for any detail.

Neuroimaging, which allows visualizing the structure and function of neurons and neuronal networks, is essential to monitor the activity of central and peripheral nervous systems as well as to diagnose their pathologies.

Functional neuroimaging in humans performing cognitive tasks, abstract thinking or mental visualization has led to important knowledge about the topography and activity of brain systems, bridging the gap between neuronal activity and subjective experience. In a narrower scale, microscopic visualization of neurons at cellular and subcellular levels has provided important clues for the understanding of cell-to-cell interactions as well as of molecular pathways governing a huge array of cognitive and physiological functions.

These issues have been very well characterized for neuron-to-neuron interaction within the central nervous system. However, much remains to be investigated about neuronal targeting of non-neuronal cells and tissues, or about nervous system interface with other systems.

This Special Issue will focus on neuroimaging studies for visualizing neuronal structure ranging from brain systems to subcellular components in both human and animal models. The emphasis should be on imaging of nervous system interactions with target organs and other tissues or systems.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following areas:

Peripheral nervous system: imaging applications on autonomic (sympathetic and parasympathetic) innervation of target organs and somatic innervation of skeletal muscles;

Neuronal microenvironment(s): imaging of perineuronal nets, including extracellular matrix; visualization of nerves in a tumor microenvironment, including tools for the identification of distributed neurites and specific synaptic markers; imaging of microglia and immune cells;

Immunohistochemistry and/or staining tools and their microscopy applications: characterization of novel antibodies for the localization of antigens in tissue sections; novel staining procedures and/or tracers for neurons, neurites and other subcellular components as well as for neuronal microenvironment components; novel applications of optical techniques; original computational analysis for imaging.

Research papers and case reports presenting original studies that fill the above criteria, as well as review articles that relate to the mentioned topics are welcome to this Special Issue.

Dr. Silvia Middei
Dr. Elisabetta Ferraro
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at http://www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI’s English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords
neuroimaging
neuronal microenvironment
NMJ (neuromuscular junction)
microglia
neurites
synapses