Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 7, 2026

MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound Thalamotomy for Patients with Medically-refractory Essential Tremor
Published on: December 13, 2017
Glucose metabolism in the brain of patients with essential tremor
1Human Motor Control Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Abstract:
Using positron emission tomography with [18F]fluoro-2-deoxyglucose, we determined the regional cerebral metabolic rate of glucose utilization at rest in 8 medication-free patients with essential tremor and in 10 normal subjects. Taking the metabolic values of regions of interest as ratios to the mean hemispheric metabolism, the patients showed significant glucose hypermetabolism of the medulla and thalami, but not of the cerebellar cortex. This study lends support to earlier suggestions that circuits involving the inferior olivary nuclei in the medulla and the thalmus are involved in the generation of essential tremor.
Related Concept Videos
Overview of Carbohydrate Metabolism
Glucose transport into cells is facilitated by a family of transport proteins called GLUT (Glucose Transporters). GLUT4 is the primary glucose transporter for insulin-stimulated glucose...
Glucose Homeostasis: Regulation of Blood Glucose
During fasting, when blood glucose levels are low, the pancreas secretes glucagon. it...

