Our group has previously shown that exposure to environmental hypoxia reduces regional CBF within the posterior nodes of the default mode network. Within the same region, hypoxia also reversed the task evoked BOLD response. However, it is unclear what neurometabolic signals underlie this peculiar hemodynamic response to hypoxia. To investigate we employed event related functional MRS to measure the dynamic changes in neurometabolites within the posterior cingulate during hypoxia. We found that hypoxia negates the functional increase in glutamate as seen in normoxia, and induced a regional reduction in glucose. This observation suggests that hypoxia may reduce regional oxidative metabolism.
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