In a method and apparatus for detection and spectral editing in MR spectroscopy by polarization transfer in which the high spin population difference of two or more energy levels of a particular nuclear spin system is transferred to the energy levels of an other nuclear spin system with lower spin population difference, all RF pulses to be irradiated are irradiated sequentially, i.e. with defined time interval to each other, so that at no time of the sequence are different RF pulses irradiated concurrently in an overlapping manner. The sequential succession of the RF pulses causes the polarization transfer between the two spin systems of atomic nuclei involved. The sequence of the RF pulses in each domain of the respective nuclei is completely symmetric.