Relationship between neurotransmission and neuroenergetics

Glutamate, the major excitatory neurotransmit 13C MRS can measure isotopic turnover in both of these major neurotransmitters, which in turn provide in vivo measurements of neurotransmission and neuroenergetics for these systems. In absolute units of µmol/g/min, the figure compares measured fluxes of neurotransmission and neuroenergetics from the rat brain. The linear relationship between neurotransmission and neuroenergetics suggests that “energy” is an excellent measure of “work”. The dark blue squares are from Patel et al (2004), the red circle is from Oz et al (2005), the light blue circle is from Choi et al (2002), the green diamonds are from de Graaf et al (2004), and the gray triangles are from Sibson et al (1998).