Neurochemical correlates of scene processing in the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex: A multimodal fMRI and 1H-MRS study

Costigan, Alison G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9164-3081, Umla-Runge, Katja ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9615-8907, Evans, C. John ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6619-4245, Hodgetts, Carl J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0339-2447, Lawrence, Andrew D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6705-2110 and Graham, Kim S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1512-7667 2019. Neurochemical correlates of scene processing in the precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex: A multimodal fMRI and 1H-MRS study. Human Brain Mapping 40 (10) , pp. 2884-2898. 10.1002/hbm.24566

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Abstract

Precuneus/posterior cingulate cortex (PCu/PCC) are key components of a midline network, activated during rest but also in tasks that involve construction of scene or situation models. Despite growing interest in PCu/PCC functional alterations in disease and disease risk, the underlying neurochemical modulators of PCu/PCC's task‐evoked activity are largely unstudied. Here, a multimodal imaging approach was applied to investigate whether interindividual differences in PCu/PCC fMRI activity, elicited during perceptual discrimination of scene stimuli, were correlated with local brain metabolite levels, measured during resting‐state 1H‐MRS. Forty healthy young adult participants completed an fMRI perceptual odd‐one‐out task for scenes, objects and faces. 1H‐MRS metabolites N‐acetyl‐aspartate (tNAA), glutamate (Glx) and γ‐amino‐butyric acid (GABA+) were quantified via PRESS and MEGA‐PRESS scans in a PCu/PCC voxel and an occipital (OCC) control voxel. Whole brain fMRI revealed a cluster in right dorsal PCu/PCC that showed a greater BOLD response to scenes versus faces and objects. When extracted from an independently defined PCu/PCC region of interest, scene activity (vs. faces and objects and also vs. baseline) was positively correlated with PCu/PCC, but not OCC, tNAA. A voxel‐wise regression analysis restricted to the PCu/PCC 1H‐MRS voxel area identified a significant PCu/PCC cluster, confirming the positive correlation between scene‐related BOLD activity and PCu/PCC tNAA. There were no correlations between PCu/PCC activity and Glx or GABA+ levels. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that scene activity in PCu/PCC is linked to local tNAA levels, identifying a neurochemical influence on interindividual differences in the task‐driven activity of a key brain hub.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Medicine Psychology Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC)
Additional Information:	This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Publisher:	Wiley
ISSN:	1065-9471
Funders:	Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 February 2019
Date of Acceptance:	15 February 2019
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2023 21:47
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/119693

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