Beyond the BOLD signal: What Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy reveals about the human brain

While functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and its underlying BOLD signal remain the most widely used neuroimaging approach to study human brain function, new methods have emerged over the past few decades. Among them, Single Voxel Spectroscopy (SVS) provides access to the brain’s biochemical composition, offering insights that conventional fMRI cannot capture. In this talk, we will first cover the basic principles of SVS and highlight what this method can reveal about brain function. We will then present a study design aimed at mapping near whole-brain glutamate concentrations under conditions of mental fatigue, using state of the art Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging.