SPECTROSCOPY OF HUMAN BRAIN AT 7T

Ut Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas TX

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Abstract

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) provides an effective tool for measuring metabolites in the human brain noninvasively in vivo. High-field MRS benefits from the increased chemical shift dispersion and signal gain. Precise measurement of several clinically-important, low-abundance metabolites by standard 1H-MRS is often elusive even at 7T, due to the spectroscopic complexities arising from the scalar coupling effects and macromolecule baseline signals. The objectives of the research are to develop MRS techniques that provide improved inter-metabolite discrimination for detection of glycine, serine, N-acetylaspartyl-glutamate (NAAG), glutamine, g-aminobutyric acid, etc., at both 7T and 3T. The MRS studies focus on prefrontal and hippocampal regions which are experimentally challenging but have high relevance to several neuropsychiatric disorders.