An Overview of Imaging Techniques for Diagnosis of Debilitating Neurodegenerative Diseases

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) are the leading cause of physical and cognitive disabilities across the globe and affecting approximately 50 million people worldwide. Till date, despite significant understanding about the mechanisms involved in the disease, none of the treatment regimens have been proved to prevent or suppress it. Neuroimaging has revolutionized the understanding of brain function and its abnormality and has become an essential tool for researchers and clinicians to study neurodegenerative disorders. By visualizing brain structures with the available advanced sophisticated neuroimaging techniques, one can understand how different regions of the brain are involved in various cognitive and behavioral processes. Neuroimaging techniques are crucial in studying the state of NDDs, and designing of drugs according to the need of individual patient might be one of the biggest breakthroughs in the field of the disease. A comprehensive overview of the neuroimaging techniques along with their importance and impact in the key NDDs has been enlisted in the present chapter.