Vaika's fundamental goal is improving the health of aged animals. We do not limit our activities to Aging Sled Dog Study but are open for collaborations and are always eager to help other researchers and veterinarians who share our goals. A subset of Vaika's dogs participated in a non-invasive study by Dr. Philippa Johnson aimed to create first of a kind cortical atlas for the canine brain based on multi-modal magnetic resonance imaging. MRI is commonly in human neuroscientific research and allows to identify alterations in tissue volume and connectivity and identify neuropathology at the early stages. However until recently this technique was not utilized for the same purposes in dogs. Dr. Johnson's atlas will serve as foundation for detailed analysis of canine neurological system and will provide a reference standard for canine brain MRI research. Research article describing Atlas was published in Scientific Reports journal by Nature https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7076022/
Dr. Johnson's Atlas is available through Cornell School of Veterinary online repository