GABA Levels Are Significantly Reduced in the Visual, Motor, and Auditory Cortex of Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Authors

• Mark D. Zuppichini, Montclair State UniversityFollow
• Abbey M. Hamlin, The University of Texas at Austin
• Quan Zhou, University of Michigan
• Esther Kim, University of Michigan
• Kayla Wyatt, University of Michigan
• Noah Reardon, University of Michigan
• Benjamin M. Hampstead, University of Michigan
• Thad A. Polk, University of Michigan

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-26-2025

Journal / Book Title

Aging and disease

Abstract

One factor that might contribute to functional deterioration in patients with mild cognitive impairment (pwMCI) is a reduction in the brain's major inhibitory neurotransmitter, gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA). Previous studies have reported reductions in GABA in pwMCI while others have not. Here we use magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to estimate GABA + macromolecules due to co-editing (GABA+) levels in six different brain regions in 37 pwMCI and 163 healthy controls. We estimate GABA+ levels using both creatine and water as reference molecules, and we analyze the effect of correcting for grey matter volume. When referenced to water, we found that GABA+ was significantly lower in pwMCI compared to controls in all six regions, even after tissue composition correction. When referenced to creatine, all but two regions exhibited lower amounts of GABA+ for pwMCI, even after controlling for tissue composition. Results suggest that pwMCI experience reductions in GABA+ throughout the brain, even in regions not typically associated with cognitive impairment.

DOI

10.14336/AD.2025.0334

MSU Digital Commons Citation

Zuppichini, Mark D.; Hamlin, Abbey M.; Zhou, Quan; Kim, Esther; Wyatt, Kayla; Reardon, Noah; Hampstead, Benjamin M.; and Polk, Thad A., "GABA Levels Are Significantly Reduced in the Visual, Motor, and Auditory Cortex of Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment." (2025). Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 742.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/psychology-facpubs/742

Rights

© 2025 Zuppichini MD. et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Published Citation

Zuppichini, M. D., Hamlin, A. M., Zhou, Q., Kim, E., Wyatt, K., Reardon, N., Hampstead, B. M., & Polk, T. A. (2025). GABA Levels Are Significantly Reduced in the Visual, Motor, and Auditory Cortex of Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Aging and disease, 17(4), 2241–2252. https://doi.org/10.14336/AD.2025.0334