Decrease of frontal metabolism demonstrated by positron emission tomography in a population of healthy elderly volunteers.

Frontal metabolism measured with positron emission tomography is shown to be decreased relatively to that in other cortical or sub-cortical areas, in a population of healthy elderly compared to young volunteers. Cortical atrophy or neuronal depopulation are unlikely to entirely explain this physiological phenomenon, and sub-cortico-cortical deactivation should play a role, analogous to that proposed in subcortical diseases.