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Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of the Human Brain

  • Chapter
Modern Techniques in Neuroscience Research

Abstract

Twenty years ago, the optimum techniques available to address a metabolic question in the brain were considered to be — in order of reliability — brain slices in vitro, arteriovenous differences in vivo across the jugular bulb and carotid artery, isolated intact brain perfusion in situ and, the then newly emerging techniques of isolated brain-cell preparation (Ross 1979). Almost at the same time, however, there appeared a seminal paper describing the transfer, after 25 years, of the chemists’ major investigational tool, nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS), to the intact mammalian brain in vivo (Thulborn et al. 1981). Soon thereafter followed in vivo MRS of human muscle (Ross et al. 1981), and of neonatal (Hamilton et al. 1986) and adult human brain (Bottomley et al. 1983). Today, few university hospitals in the world are without a whole-body MR scanner capable of assaying metabolites non-invasively in the human brain, using robust MRS methods. Together with MRS, physiological MRI, fMRI and PET (Chaps. 38 and 39, respectively), the neuroscientist can now reverse the order of preference when considering a technique with which to address a metabolic question in the brain. It is almost certainly “easiest” to turn first to the intact human brain with in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy. How best to do this in practice is the subject of this chapter.

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Authors
  1. Stefan Blüml
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  2. Brian Ross
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Musculoskeletat Research, National Institute for Working Life, Petrus Laestadius väg, 90713, Umeå, Sweden

    Uwe Windhorst  & Håkan Johansson  & 

  2. Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Department of Physiology and Biophysics Faculty of Medicine, The University of Calgary, 333 Hospital Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4N1, Canada

    Uwe Windhorst

  3. Zentrum Physiologie und Pathophysiologie, Universität Göttingen, Humboldtallee 23, 37073, Göttingen, Germany

    Uwe Windhorst

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Blüml, S., Ross, B. (1999). Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of the Human Brain. In: Windhorst, U., Johansson, H. (eds) Modern Techniques in Neuroscience Research. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58552-4_40

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-58552-4_40

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