Francesca Branzoli1, Aranee Techawiboonwong2, Sebastian Aussenhofer1, Andrew Webb1, Itamar Ronen1
1C. J. Gorter Center for High Field MRI, Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands; 2Department of Electrical Engineering, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Here we propose functional Diffusion-Weighted Spectroscopy (fDWS) as a new method to investigate compartment-specific microstructural and metabolic changes related to neuronal activation. In this method a time series of alternating diffusion and non-diffusion weighted spectra is acquired, yielding a time-resolved series of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of metabolites correlated with neuronal activation. Especially, the detected changes in tCr and tCho ADCs can be exploited as a viable probe for brain activity, providing a tool for direct measurement of metabolic and microstructural changes during neuronal activation.