Frontal GABA Levels Change During Working Memory

Overview

Journal PLoS One

Specialties General Medicine
Science

Date 2012 Apr 10

PMID 22485128

Citations 54

Authors

Lars Michels

Ernst Martin

Peter Klaver

Richard Edden

Fernando Zelaya

David J Lythgoe

Rafael Luchinger

Daniel Brandeis

Ruth L OGorman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Functional neuroimaging metrics are thought to reflect changes in neurotransmitter flux, but changes in neurotransmitter levels have not been demonstrated in humans during a cognitive task, and the relationship between neurotransmitter dynamics and hemodynamic activity during cognition has not yet been established. We evaluate the concentration of the major inhibitory (GABA) and excitatory (glutamate + glutamine: Glx) neurotransmitters and the cerebral perfusion at rest and during a prolonged delayed match-to-sample working memory task. Resting GABA levels in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex correlated positively with the resting perfusion and inversely with the change in perfusion during the task. Further, only GABA increased significantly during the first working memory run and then decreased continuously across subsequent task runs. The decrease of GABA over time was paralleled by a trend towards decreased reaction times and higher task accuracy. These results demonstrate a link between neurotransmitter dynamics and hemodynamic activity during working memory, indicating that functional neuroimaging metrics depend on the balance of excitation and inhibition required for cognitive processing.

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