Chun-Jen Huang1, Yi-Yu Shih2, Yi-Jui Liu3, Hsiao-Wen Chung1
1Graduate Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Bioinformatics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 2Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3Department of Automatic Control Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan
Functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS) has been used to investigate the activation-related metabolic changes of neurons following stimulation. One of the most critical challenges in fMRS is the extremely tiny signal change. In this study, we investigated the ultimate sensitivity level of 1H spectroscopy at 3.0 Tesla and performed fMRS visual stimulation tests to examine the quantitative level of concentration changes in N-acetylaspartate (NAA). We conclude that quantitative analysis of fMRS data seems to allow detection of 0.8% changes ultimately in NAA concentration at 3.0 Tesla, and visual stimulation has the potential to affect the metabolism of NAA.