GABA Levels in Left and Right Sensorimotor Cortex Correlate across Individuals
Nicolaas A. J. Puts,
Stefanie Heba,
Ashley D. Harris,
Christopher John Evans,
David J. McGonigle,
Martin Tegenthoff,
Tobias Schmidt-Wilcke,
Richard A. E. Edden
Affiliations
Nicolaas A. J. Puts
Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
Stefanie Heba
Department of Neurology, BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil, Bürkle de la Camp-Platz 1, 44789 Bochum, Germany
Ashley D. Harris
Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
Christopher John Evans
CUBRIC, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, Wales, UK
David J. McGonigle
CUBRIC, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, Wales, UK
Martin Tegenthoff
Department of Neurology, BG University Hospital Bergmannsheil, Bürkle de la Camp-Platz 1, 44789 Bochum, Germany
Tobias Schmidt-Wilcke
Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Medical Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Universitätsstr. 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Richard A. E. Edden
Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA
Differences in γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels measured with Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy have been shown to correlate with behavioral performance over a number of tasks and cortical regions. These correlations appear to be regionally and functionally specific. In this study, we test the hypothesis that GABA levels will be correlated within individuals for functionally related regions—the left and right sensorimotor cortex. In addition, we investigate whether this is driven by bulk tissue composition. GABA measurements using edited MRS data were acquired from the left and right sensorimotor cortex in 24 participants. T1-weighted MR images were also acquired and segmented to determine the tissue composition of the voxel. GABA level is shown to correlate significantly between the left and right regions (r = 0.64, p < 0.03). Tissue composition is highly correlated between sides, but does not explain significant variance in the bilateral correlation. In conclusion, individual differences in GABA level, which have previously been described as functionally and regionally specific, are correlated between homologous sensorimotor regions. This correlation is not driven by bulk differences in voxel tissue composition.
