Brain glucose utilization under high sensory activation: hypoactivation of prefrontal cortex

Brain glucose metabolism was studied, using positron emission tomography and [F-18]-2-deoxy-2-fluoro-D-glucose, in 13 healthy young adult men, at rest and under conditions of high visual and auditory stimulation with minor motor involvement. Despite high individual variations, the mean cerebral metabolic rate for glucose was highly increased during stimulation. Furthermore, the regional pattern of cerebral glucose utilization showed consistent differences between resting and activated states. Several brain areas, including temporal, motor-premotor and parieto-occipital cortices, and striatum, thalamus, and cerebellum showed a level of activation statistically comparable to that of mean gray. Significant preferential activation was found only in the visual cortex. By contrast, prefrontal and mesial cortical areas were relatively hypoactivated by the task. Inasmuch as prefrontal cortex is known to receive visual associative afferents, these observations are tentatively interpreted in terms of the "parallel" mode of information processing, along specific routes according to the environmental state.