Richard Anthony Edward Edden1, Nick
Adrianus Johannus Puts2, Christopher John Evans3, David
John McGonigle2,3
1Russell H Morgan
Department of Radiology & Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins
University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2School of Biosciences,
Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom; 3CUBRIC, School of
Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom
Deficits in GABAergic transmission and perceptual processing have been implicated in a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Here we use MEGA-PRESS MRS and tactile psychophysics to investigate the relationship between in vivo GABA concentration and individual vibrotactile thresholds in humans at 3T. GABA concentration correlated with individual vibrotactile frequency discrimination thresholds in sensorimotor cortex (R = 0.58; p < 0.02) but not in occipital cortex (n.s.). This study shows that MEGA-PRESS MRS can be used to link measures of perceptual ability to neurotransmitter concentration in the somatosensory domain.