A non-invasive longitudinal method that is sensitive and objective for quantifying progressive loss of neurons in normal aging brains and brains that suffer from a neurodegenerative disease is provided. The method also provides clinicians, patients and drug companies with a method for evaluating the efficacy of various treatments and interventions by assessing a change in brain integrity. The method determines and localizes a change in brain integrity in a compartment of a brain from at least structural images and metabolite brain images, which are acquired for at least two time instances. The time period between two time instances is dependent on the disease pathology and disease progression and could, for instance, be at least 3 months between time instances as well as at least 6 or 12 months between time instances.
Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging method to monitor progression and treatment of neurodegenerative conditions