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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on July 15, 2009
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhp145
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A 1H-MR Spectroscopy Study of Changes in Glutamate and Glutamine (Glx) Concentrations in Frontal Spectra after Administration of Memantine

Heidi van Wageningen1, Hugo A. Jørgensen2,3, Karsten Specht1,4 and Kenneth Hugdahl1,2

1 Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, 5009 Bergen, Norway, 2 Division of Psychiatry, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway, 3 Department of Clinical Medicine, Psychiatry, University of Bergen, 5020 Bergen, Norway, 4 Clinical Engineering Department, Haukeland University Hospital, 5021 Bergen, Norway

Address correspondence to Heidi van Wageningen, Department of Biological and Medical Psychology, University of Bergen, Jonas Lies Vei 91, 5011 Bergen, Norway. Email: heidi.wageningen{at}psybp.uib.no.

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain and therefore important for cognitive functions. The aim of the study was to investigate if administration of the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist memantine to healthy individuals would affect brain activation when performing an auditory attention task. The task was a variant of a dichotic listening task with different instructions that tap demands for attention and cognitive control. We asked the question if memantine administration would lead to reduction in glutamatergic neurotransmission in areas related to attention and cognitive control. Left and right frontal glutamate and glutamine (Glx) concentrations were measured, using 1H-MR spectroscopy. Twenty-five healthy adults were scanned twice in a counterbalanced design, either drug naive or after administration of memantine for 21 days. The results showed that memantine significantly reduced Glx concentrations, and this reduction was associated with a reduction in brain activation in prefrontal cortex, which could have implications for understanding the neuronal mechanisms underlying higher cognitive functions such as cognitive control.

Key Words: cognitive control • fMRI • glutamate and glutamine • 1H-MR spectroscopy • memantine


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