Dependency of Proton MR Spectroscopy Neuro-Metabolite Concentrations on Grey Matter Fraction and Location in the Healthy Human Brain

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Variations in six neuro-metabolite (N-acetylaspartate, creatine, myo-inositol, glutamate, glutamine and glycerophosphorylcholine) signals from MR spectroscopy (MRS) data across eleven brain regions were tested for regional differences and for dependence on the spectroscopic volume tissue composition (fractional grey matter (GM)), using a linear mixed-effect model. We found significant positive correlations of N-acetylaspartate, creatine and glutamate concentrations with fractional GM across all eleven regions and a significant regional effect for all six metabolites. This provides clear evidence that brain metabolite measurements are dependent on both the region and fractional GM, demonstrating the importance of knowing tissue fractions when interpreting MRS measurements.