Both [1-14C]glucose and 2-[1-14C]deoxyglucose produce selective iso-frequency labelling in the inferior colliculus of the cat with short stimulation periods.

Both [1-14C]glucose and 2-[1-14C]deoxyglucose (2-DG) revealed selective autoradiographic labelling to tones in the inferior colliculus of the cat with short stimulation periods (5-15 min). With longer periods of stimulation (45 min), the selectivity disappeared with glucose but remained with 2-DG. At all stimulation intervals, 2-DG labelling was always more selective than that obtained with glucose. However, the selectivity seen with glucose was good enough to indicate that isotopes of glucose with short half-lives could still be employed to study human functional activity with the positron emission tomography technique, provided that short stimulation periods were used.