Dietary supplementation of creatine monohydrate reduces the human fMRI BOLD signal

Hammett, Stephen T.; Wall, Matthew B.; Edwards, Thomas C.; Smith, Andrew T.

doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2010.05.054

Cited by 38Advanced MRI Techniques and ApplicationsMuscle metabolism and nutritionAdvanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications

Dietary supplementation of creatine monohydrate reduces the human fMRI BOLD signal

Hammett, Stephen T., Wall, Matthew B., Edwards, Thomas C., Smith, Andrew T.·2010·Neuroscience Letters

DOI 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.05.054

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Abstract

Creatine monohydrate is an organic acid that plays a key role in ATP re-synthesis. Creatine levels in the human brain vary considerably and dietary supplementation has been found to enhance cognitive performance in healthy individuals. To explore the possibility that the fMRI Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) response is influenced by creatine levels, BOLD responses to visual stimuli were measured in visual cortex before and after a week of creatine administration in healthy human volunteers. The magnitude of the BOLD response decreased by 16% following creatine supplementation of a similar dose to that previously shown to increase cerebral levels of phosphocreatine. We also confirmed that cognitive performance (memory span) is increased. These changes were not found in a placebo group. Possible mechanisms of BOLD change are considered. The results offer potential for insight into the coupling between neural activity and the BOLD response and the more immediate possibility of accounting for an important source of variability during fMRI analysis in clinical studies and other investigations where between-subjects variance is an issue.

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A number of other studies with omnivore participants or unspecified and presumably omnivore participants also found a large creatine effect.
“Under the same conditions, a number of other studies with omnivore participants [52–55] or unspecified and presumably omnivore participants [56–58] also found a large creatine effect”
From The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance—a randomised controlled study (2023) · cites this paper as [56]
Age does not explain the difference in BDS results between our study and Rae et al. [8] and Hammett et al. [56].
“However, the age of our participants was very similar (mean = 31, sd = 10, median = 28) but slightly higher than those of Rae et al. [8] (median = 25.5) and Hammett et al. [56] (median = 26), so age does not seem to explain the difference in results.”
From The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance—a randomised controlled study (2023) · cites this paper as [56]
The creatine effect for RAPM in our study was much smaller (d = 0.09) compared to two of the three other studies in the literature that tested RAPM in healthy adults.
“In our study, the creatine effect for Raven’s Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) was much smaller (d = 0.09) compared to two of the three other studies in the literature that have tested the effect of creatine supplementation on RAPM in healthy adults [8, 54, 56].”
From The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance—a randomised controlled study (2023) · cites this paper as [56]

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Authors: Hammett, S. T., Wall, M. B., Edwards, T. C., & Smith, A. T.
Affiliations: Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
Corresponding author: Hammett, Stephen T.
ORCID: Hammett, Stephen T.
Wall, Matthew B.
Edwards, Thomas C.
Smith, Andrew T.
Venue: Neuroscience Letters
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Published: 2010-08
Volume: 479
Issue: 3
Pages: 201-205
ISSN: 0304-3940 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2010.05.054
OpenAlex: W1968963299
Cited by: 38
References: 28
Citations by year: 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 7 · 2015: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
FWCI: 1.04
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
Locations: Neuroscience Letters (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics: Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
Keywords: creatine monohydrate, dietary supplementation, BOLD signal, visual cortex, phosphocreatine, memory span, cognitive performance, between-subject variability
MeSH terms: Creatine, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Memory, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Visual Cortex, Dietary Supplements

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Dietary supplementation of creatine monohydrate reduces the human fMRI BOLD signal

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