Metabolic changes in visual cortex of neonatal monocular enucleated rat: a proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy study

▶ Neonatal monocular nucleation leads to lower taurine and N-acetylaspartate levels in the visual cortex contralateral to enucleated eye. ▶ Metabolic changes revealed by in vivo 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) likely reflect the cortical degeneration associated with the reduction of neurons, axon terminals and overall neuronal activity. ▶ In vivo 1H MRS can characterize the biochemical and metabolic alterations in developmental neuroplasticity models.