Beyond static measures: A review of functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy and its potential to investigate dynamic glutamatergic abnormalities in schizophrenia

Abnormalities of the glutamate system are increasingly implicated in schizophrenia but their exact nature remains unknown. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS), while fundamental in revealing glutamatergic alterations in schizophrenia, has, until recently, been significantly limited and thought to only provide static measures. Functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS), which uses sequential scans for dynamic measurement of a range of brain metabolites in activated brain areas, has lately been applied to a variety of task or stimulus conditions, producing interesting insights into neurometabolite responses to neural activation. Here, we summarise the existing 1H-MRS studies of brain glutamate in schizophrenia. We then present a comprehensive review of research studies that have utilised fMRS, and lastly consider how fMRS methods might further the understanding of glutamatergic abnormalities in schizophrenia.