Glutamate Level in the Frontal Cortex Decreases During Young Adulthood

Anouk Marsman¹, Dennis Klomp², Jannie Wijnen², Martijn Van den Heuvel¹, Vincent Boer², Peter Luijten², Hilleke Hulshoff Pol¹

Glutamate is the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and is involved in functions that alter with age. Using 1H-MRS (STEAM) at 7 Tesla, glutamate was measured in the medial frontal cortex of young adults, in which a decrease in glutamate concentration with increasing age was found. The decrease in glutamate concentration is in line with the gray matter thinning in medial frontal cortex in young adulthood. However, the change in glutamate is larger than the gray matter change, therefore we postulate that the observed effect is due to physiological changes rather than anatomical changes.