Positron emission tomography--a new technique for studies of the central nervous system.

Positron emission tomography (PET) has become an important tool to study the central nervous system. Examples of such studies are cerebral blood flow and metabolism and determination of receptor characteristics of the brain. In the following the basic principles and the physics behind PET are given. Different aspects are discussed such as detector design, image reconstructions and data analyses. Since quantification is essential in PET, data have to be corrected for absorption, scatter and random coincidences. These corrections and their influence on image data are discussed. A review of state-of-the-art PET research of the brain is given.