It is shown that spectral overlap can cause an apparent correlation between metabolites regardless of underlying biological correlations or the lack thereof. Because MRS signals are often used to correlate with other MRS signals or clinical measures a theoretical framework is developed to estimate correlations originating from spectral overlap at long echo time. Monte Carlos simulations were also performed to quantify the correlations. Our results showed that significant correlations may occur even at long TE, when the contribution from macromolecule background becomes negligible. The proposed theoretical framework was proven to be useful for predicting cross-correlation coefficients originating from spectral overlap.
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