Alain Dagher

Big data in neuroimaging has allowed us to uncover novel associations between brain measures and disease or behavioural phenotypes. However, causal mechanisms are not always evident. Confounds, reverse causation, and selection bias all limit causal interpretations. Inspired by the new science of causal inference, we combine (1) very large MRI and postmortem datasets, (2) genomics, and (3) pathophysiology-informed computational models. I will discuss methods for determining causality from observational data and apply these principles to Parkinson’s disease. I will show that PD is likely a propagating proteinopathy with disease epicentres and routes of propagation that determine clinical manifestations. I will also show that genetically-determined brain features appear to confer vulnerability to the disease, and speculate on what these tell us about the pathophysiology of PD.

Dr. Alain Dagher is a neurologist and neuroscientist at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University, whose research focuses on the function of the basal ganglia and the role of dopamine in cognition, emotion, and motivated behavior. His work investigates how we learn about rewards and punishments and become motivated to engage in reward-seeking behaviors, with a particular emphasis on Parkinson’s disease, stress, drug addiction (notably cigarette smoking), pathological gambling, and obesity. Using advanced neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), his research examines how disruptions in dopamine function contribute to motor disease and addictive disorders and explores the behavioral, endocrine, and metabolic correlates of these conditions. Dr. Dagher was among the first to publish on functional brain mapping in Parkinson’s disease and has developed methods to measure dopamine release in the human brain, work that has provided important insights into the neural mechanisms underlying reward processing and disease vulnerability.

*To register for remote access, please use this Zoom link.