Figure 3.

Functional brain imaging in drug discovery. Known agents and procedures are used to develop disease-relevant biomarkers by cross-validation of data between normal animal and human brain function and between animal disease models and human disease. This process also provides new understanding of brain system functions and aids pharmacological target identification for drug discovery. The effect of a new compound on the previously established biomarker can then be assessed, effective doses evaluated and regulatory evidence collected in efficient POC studies. These POC studies in small cohorts of patients and healthy volunteers can validate our understanding of a mechanism of action and give initial data on efficacy. Reproduced with permission from Wise and Tracey.¹⁸²