Open AccessResting-state functional connectivity and quantitation of glutamate and GABA of the PCC/precuneus by magnetic resonance spectroscopy at 7T in healthy individuals
Author(s) -
Ofer Gonen,
Bradford A. Moffat,
Patrick Kwan,
Terence J. O’Brien,
Patricia Desmond,
Elaine Lui
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0244491
Subject(s) - glutamate receptor , precuneus , default mode network , neuroscience , glutamatergic , functional magnetic resonance imaging , resting state fmri , inhibitory postsynaptic potential , chemistry , medicine , nuclear magnetic resonance , biology , physics , receptor
The default mode network (DMN) is the main large-scale network of the resting brain and the PCC/precuneus is a major hub of this network. Glutamate and GABA (γ-amino butyric acid) are the main excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters in the CNS, respectively. We studied glutamate and GABA concentrations in the PCC/precuneus via magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) at 7T in relation to age and correlated them with functional connectivity between this region and other DMN nodes in ten healthy right-handed volunteers ranging in age between 23–68 years. Mean functional connectivity of the PCC/precuneus to the other DMN nodes and the glutamate/GABA ratio significantly correlated with age ( r = 0.802, p = 0.005 and r = 0.793, p = 0.006, respectively) but not with each other. Glutamate and GABA alone did not significantly correlate with age nor with functional connectivity within the DMN. The glutamate/GABA ratio and functional connectivity of the PCC/precuneus are, therefore, independent age-related biomarkers of the DMN and may be combined in a multimodal pipeline to study DMN alterations in various disease states.