A method of determining the specific binding of ligand reversibly binding to a binding site in a sample using displacement competitive inhibition. The method comprising incubating the ligand (unlabeled) in the absence of a labeled ligand on a first tissue specimen, incubating the ligand (unlabeled) in the presence of a labeled ligand on a second tissue specimen, the first and the second tissue specimens being adjacent sections of specimen. MALDI imaging mass spectrometry is used to subsequently visualizing bound ligand localization, using in the first and second tissue specimen, respectively.