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One very straight forward option is Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, which can measure things like glutamate levels etc. However, this has always been viewed as a fairly static measure of neurotransmitter levels, and so has not been widely used as a measure of neural activity. However, Paul Mullins at Bangor University has been doing some work using spectroscopy to measure neurotransmitter levels in different parts of the brain. From the work I have seen him present so far, it is sensitive enough to track stimulus driven changes in neurotransmitter levels with a standard blocked design (ie 18sec blocks of stimulation followed by 18sec of rest). I'm not too sure whether it has the same functional contrast to noise as the BOLD response and it definitely has a lower spatial resolution than BOLD techniques. This work is currently being prepared for publication so I shouldn't say too much.

Resonance methods can be used to measure neurotransmitter levels. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy can measure the levels of a large number of neurotransmitters. However, this has always been viewed as a fairly static measure of neurotransmitter levels, and so has not been widely used as a measure of neural activity. However, Paul Mullins at Bangor University has been doing some work using spectroscopy to measure neurotransmitter levels in different parts of the brain. From the work I have seen him present so far, it is sensitive enough to track stimulus driven changes in neurotransmitter levels with a standard blocked design (ie 18sec blocks of stimulation followed by 18sec of rest). I'm not too sure whether it has the same functional contrast-to-noise as the BOLD response and it definitely has a lower spatial resolution than BOLD techniques. This work is currently being prepared for publication so I shouldn't say too much.

References

Novotny, E. J., Fulbright, R. K., Pearl, P. L., Gibson, K. M., & Rthman D. L. (2003). Magnetic resonance spectroscopy of neurotransmitters in human brain, Annals of Neurology, 54, S25-S31. PubMed.

Paul Mullins at Bangor University has been doing some work using spectroscopy (a standard Magnetic Resonance technique) to measure neurotransmitter levels in different parts of the brain. From the work I have seen him present so far, it is sensitive enough to track stimulus driven changes in neurotransmitter levels with a standard blocked design. I'm not too sure whether it has the same functional contrast to noise as the BOLD response and it definitely has a lower spatial resolution than BOLD techniques.

One very straight forward option is Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy, which can measure things like glutamate levels etc. However, this has always been viewed as a fairly static measure of neurotransmitter levels, and so has not been widely used as a measure of neural activity. However, Paul Mullins at Bangor University has been doing some work using spectroscopy to measure neurotransmitter levels in different parts of the brain. From the work I have seen him present so far, it is sensitive enough to track stimulus driven changes in neurotransmitter levels with a standard blocked design (ie 18sec blocks of stimulation followed by 18sec of rest). I'm not too sure whether it has the same functional contrast to noise as the BOLD response and it definitely has a lower spatial resolution than BOLD techniques. This work is currently being prepared for publication so I shouldn't say too much.

Paul Mullins at Bangor University has been doing some work using spectroscopy (an MRI technique) to measure neurotransmitter levels in different parts of the brain. From the work I have seen him present so far, it is sensitive enough to track stimulus driven changes in neurotransmitter levels with a standard blocked design. I'm not too sure whether it has the same functional contrast to noise as the BOLD response and it definitely has a lower spatial resolution than BOLD techniques.

Paul Mullins at Bangor University has been doing some work using spectroscopy (a standard Magnetic Resonance technique) to measure neurotransmitter levels in different parts of the brain. From the work I have seen him present so far, it is sensitive enough to track stimulus driven changes in neurotransmitter levels with a standard blocked design. I'm not too sure whether it has the same functional contrast to noise as the BOLD response and it definitely has a lower spatial resolution than BOLD techniques.