Translational Psychiatry (Jan 2021)

Excitatory–inhibitory balance within EEG microstates and resting-state fMRI networks: assessed via simultaneous trimodal PET–MR–EEG imaging

  • Ravichandran Rajkumar,
  • Cláudia Régio Brambilla,
  • Tanja Veselinović,
  • Joshua Bierbrier,
  • Christine Wyss,
  • Shukti Ramkiran,
  • Linda Orth,
  • Markus Lang,
  • Elena Rota Kops,
  • Jörg Mauler,
  • Jürgen Scheins,
  • Bernd Neumaier,
  • Johannes Ermert,
  • Hans Herzog,
  • Karl-Josef Langen,
  • Ferdinand Christoph Binkofski,
  • Christoph Lerche,
  • N. Jon Shah,
  • Irene Neuner

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-020-01160-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 15

Abstract

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Abstract The symbiosis of neuronal activities and glucose energy metabolism is reflected in the generation of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) signals. However, their association with the balance between neuronal excitation and inhibition (E/I-B), which is closely related to the activities of glutamate and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and the receptor availability (RA) of GABAA and mGluR5, remains unexplored. This research investigates these associations during the resting state (RS) condition using simultaneously recorded PET/MR/EEG (trimodal) data. The trimodal data were acquired from three studies using different radio-tracers such as, [11C]ABP688 (ABP) (N = 9), [11C]Flumazenil (FMZ) (N = 10) and 2-[18F]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) (N = 10) targeted to study the mGluR5, GABAA receptors and glucose metabolism respectively. Glucose metabolism and neuroreceptor binding availability (non-displaceable binding potential (BPND)) of GABAA and mGluR5 were found to be significantly higher and closely linked within core resting-state networks (RSNs). The neuronal generators of EEG microstates and the fMRI measures were most tightly associated with the BPND of GABAA relative to mGluR5 BPND and the glucose metabolism, emphasising a predominance of inhibitory processes within in the core RSNs at rest. Changes in the neuroreceptors leading to an altered coupling with glucose metabolism may render the RSNs vulnerable to psychiatric conditions. The paradigm employed here will likely help identify the precise neurobiological mechanisms behind these alterations in fMRI functional connectivity and EEG oscillations, potentially benefitting individualised healthcare treatment measures.