Global and regional brain metabolic scaling and its functional consequences.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Information processing in the brain requires large amounts of metabolic energy, the spatial distribution of which is highly heterogeneous, reflecting the complex activity patterns in the mammalian brain.

Results

In this study, it was found, based on empirical data, that despite this heterogeneity, the volume-specific cerebral glucose metabolic rate of many different brain structures scales with brain volume with almost the same exponent: around -0.15. The exception is white matter, the metabolism of which seems to scale with a standard specific exponent of -1/4. The scaling exponents for the total oxygen and glucose consumptions in the brain in relation to its volume are identical, at 0.86 +/- 0.03, which is significantly larger than the exponents 3/4 and 2/3 that

SUBMITTER: Karbowski J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1884139 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature