Gene-Brain PET Study Takes 2007 Image of the Year Title

Henry Wagner, M.D., one of the founders of nuclear medicine, announced the 2007 Image of the Year Title was a PET image that demonstrates that trait aggression is associated with brain MAO A activity. It was acquired by a
team from the Brookhaven Center for Translational Neuroimaging, Psychological Medicine Depart-ment at King’s College, London, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, NIH.
“The mind is what the brain does,” noted Dr. Wagner. “The quantitative relationship shows brain chemistry linked to behavior.”
The image correlated the genetics in aggressive people with the enzyme MAO A by measuring the chemistry of the brain in healthy males using radiotracer techniques. The study showed that the MAO A enzyme is lower in people with a higher trait of aggression as measured by standardized psychological tests.