Functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy of prolonged motor activation using conventional and spectral GLM analyses

Functional MRS (fMRS) is a technique used to measure metabolic changes in response to increased neuronal activity, providing unique insights into neurotransmitter dynamics and neuroenergetics. In this study, we investigate the response of lactate and glutamate levels in the motor cortex during a sustained motor task using conventional spectral fitting and explore the use of a novel analysis approach based on the application of linear modelling directly to the spectro-temporal fMRS data. fMRS data were acquired at a field strength of 3 Tesla from 23 healthy participants using a short echo-time (28 ms) semi-LASER sequence. The functional task involved rhythmic hand clenching over a duration of 8 min and standard MRS preprocessing steps, including frequency and phase alignment, were employed. Both conventional spectral fitting and direct linear modelling were applied, and results from participant-averaged spectra and metabolite-averaged individual analyses were compared. We observed a 20% increase in lactate in response to the motor task, from participant-averaged spectral fitting, consistent with findings at higher magnetic field strengths. However, statistical testing showed some variability between the two averaging schemes and fitting algorithms. While lactate changes were supported by the direct spectral modelling approach, smaller increases in glutamate (2%) were inconsistent. Exploratory spectral modelling identified a 4% decrease in aspartate, aligning with conventional fitting and observations from prolonged visual stimulation. We demonstrate that lactate dynamics in response to a prolonged motor task are observed using short-echo time semi-LASER at 3 Tesla, and that direct linear modelling of fMRS data is a useful complement to conventional analysis. Future work includes mitigating spectral confounds, such as scalp lipid contamination and lineshape drift, and further validation of our novel direct linear modelling approach through experimental and simulated datasets.