Lindner, M;
Bell, T;
Iqbal, S;
Mullins, PG;
Christakou, A;
(2017)
In vivo functional neurochemistry of human cortical cholinergic function during visuospatial attention.
PLOS ONE
, 12
(2)
, Article e0171338. 10.1371/journal.pone.0171338.
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Abstract
Cortical acetylcholine is involved in key cognitive processes such as visuospatial attention. Dysfunction in the cholinergic system has been described in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Levels of brain acetylcholine can be pharmacologically manipulated, but it is not possible to directly measure it in vivo in humans. However, key parts of its biochemical cascade in neural tissue, such as choline, can be measured using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). There is evidence that levels of choline may be an indirect but proportional measure of acetylcholine availability in brain tissue. In this study, we measured relative choline levels in the parietal cortex using functional (event-related) MRS (fMRS) during performance of a visuospatial attention task, with a modelling approach verified using simulated data. We describe a task-driven interaction effect on choline concentration, specifically driven by contralateral attention shifts. Our results suggest that choline MRS has the potential to serve as a proxy of brain acetylcholine function in humans.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | In vivo functional neurochemistry of human cortical cholinergic function during visuospatial attention |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1371/journal.pone.0171338 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171338 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2017 Lindner et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
| Keywords: | Cortical acetylcholine, Cognitive processes, Neuropsychiatric disorders, In vivo, Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), Choline MRS |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10042273 |
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