Richard AE Edden1,2, Petroc Sumner3,
Aline Bompas3, Krish D. Singh3
1Russell H Morgan Department of
Radiology and Radiological Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,
MD, United States; 2FM Kirby Research Center for Functional MRI,
Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; 3CUBRIC,
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Recent
developments in the quantitation of GABA through edited MRS allow the
behavioural consequences of individual differences in local GABA
concentration to be studied. Such studies provide an important window into
the workings of the healthy brain and a multimodal probe to investigate
pathology. Eye movements, known to be
altered in many pathologies, are
thought to be planned in frontal eye fields (FEF). In this study we
measure GABA concentration in a functionally-localised FEF region and show
that GABA predicts saccade distractibility in healthy controls; this novel
approach suggests further studies into the biochemical origins of
neuropathologic behavioural deficits.
Keywords