In-vivo MRS measurement of gray-matter and white-matter GABA concentration in sensorimotor cortex using a motion-controlled MEGA-PRESS Sequence

摘要

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain. Understanding the GABA concentration, in vivo, is important to understand normal brain function. Using MEGA point resolved spectroscopy (MEGA-PRESS) sequence with interleaved water scans to detect subject motion, GABA level of sensorimotor cortex was measured using a voxel was identified from a functional MRI scan. The GABA level in a 20 × 20 × 20 mm³ voxel consisting of 37 ± 7% GM, 52 ± 12% WM, and 11 ± 8% CSF in the sensorimotor region was measured to be 1.43 ± 0.48 mM. In addition, using linear regression analysis, GABA concentrations within gray and white matter were calculated to be 2.87 ± 0.61 and 0.33 ± 0.11 mM, respectively.