Chapter 1 1950). Following the discovery of the spin echo (Hahn, 1950) and of spin-spin coupling (Ramsey and Purcell, 1952), NMR spectroscopy gradually developed into the most versatile technique for non-invasive probing of molecular structure, as well as molecular motions and reaction dynamics. The diagnostic value of (proton) NMR in medical applications was apprehended first by Damadian (Damadian, 1971), reporting the different magnetic relaxation times of malignant tumors from those of normal tissues.With the advent of linear magnetic field gradients (Lauterbur, 1973, Mansfield and will enable a sufficiently reliable localization to obtain adequate signals -even from the brain regions remote from the surface coil. (iii) state-of-the-art magnet and shim coils will ensure stability in B 0 . (iv) 12 cm inner diameter self-shielded gradient coil insert (Resonance Research Inc, Billerica, MA, USA) will provide sophisticated eddy current compensation, while being capable of supplying up to 400 mTm −1 in 80 μs rise time. (v) Use of only three RF pulses in water suppression scheme, in analogy to what is proposed by Ernst et al (Ernst and Hennig, 1995), will minimize the risk of unwanted echo formation. (vi) Use of oblique volume-of-interest will facilitate localization for specific brain regions.With these improvements, the primary objective of the research presented in this thesis is to implement and optimize a STEAM localization technique on a 9.4 T MRI system, to perform state-of-the-art single-voxel 1 H MRS in vivo, taking full advantage of the gain in SNR and chemical shift dispersion at higher field strengths. Further, these modifications will require, (i) systematic investigation of bandwidths and inter-pulse delays of water suppression pulses for in vitro condition as well as for mouse brain in vivo, (ii) systematic investigation of the relative detectability of strongly coupled metabolite resonances at 9.4 T compared to lower field strength.