Indeed, pioneering studies have demonstrated a high correlation between positron emission tomography based striatal DAT imaging or DTI and immunostaining values in experimental models of PD such as 6-hydroxydopamine-injected rats and MPTP-treated monkeys (Blesa et al., 2012; Hikishima et al., 2015; Molinet-Dronda et al., 2015), suggesting that comparative analysis is instrumental to decipher live imaging results. This evidence concerns the gene SLC6A3 and Parkinson disease.