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Krasnow Institute > Monday Seminars > Abstracts Functional Imaging, Neurotransmitter Activity and Mind Robert Shulman Recent in vivo C13 NMR experiments have followed labeled glucose into the glutamate and glutamine pools in rat and human brain. The flow into glutamate has determined the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen consumption (CMR02) and the flow into glutamine the rate of glutamate neurotransmitter release, by measuring the cycling rate through glutamine (Vcycle). The stoichiometric relation between these two showed that for every glucose molecule oxidized during a stimulation one molecule of the neurotransmitter glutamate is released. This enables the rate of glucose oxidation to be converted directly, and quantitatively, to the rate of neuronal firing. Since functional imaging experiments reflect the rate of glucose oxidation (either directly or indirectly depending upon the method) they can be converted to a specific value of neuronal activity. Implications for the brain activity, showing that activity during rest is needed for function, will be presented.
The Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study |
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