[Consequences of lesions of the basal ganglia on cerebral metabolic activity: clinical implications]

This brief overview summarises the literature regarding the effects of lesions of the basal ganglia (BG) on brain metabolism-an index of integrated synaptic activity. Interest in this field is because to show such effects may reveal the implication of neuron networks, damaged at the level of the BG, in the neuropsychological and behavioural expression of BG lesions. As an illustration of this, a parallel is drawn between the loss of psychic self-activation (also named "psychic akinesia" or "athymhormia") that follows bilateral lesions at variable sites of the prefrontal-striatal-pallidal-thalamic loop on one hand, and the mild prefrontal hypometabolism consistently observed in such cases. This paper also reviews the changes in brain metabolism found in progressive supranuclear palsy, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, Wilson's disease and striato-nigral degeneration.