A chemical-shift-selective filter (CSSF) was applied to the detection of J-coupled metabolites in the human brain. This filter is an acquisition-based technique that requires the chemical shifts (CS's) of different metabolites, but not their whole multiplet structures, to be resolved. The sequence is based on the 2D constant-time spin-echo experiment, which yields pure CS spectra in the indirect dimension. Localization is achieved through point-resolved spectroscopy (PRESS). The method enables unequivocal detection of glutamate and myo-inositol, both in vitro and in vivo in the human brain, at 3T.