Metabolic studies on perinatal human brain.

Oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production were determined on minced samples of cerebral cortex, caudate nucleus, thalamus and medulla oblongata of the brains of 22 human infants ranging in age from 160 to 283 days of gestation. A significant correlation of age and oxygen consumption was obtained for cerebral cortex, caudate nucleus and thalamus. The oxygen consumption of these parts was greater than that of the medulla oblongata after 200 days of gestation age. The results emphasize the impossibility of comparing the brain of the neonatal human being with the young of other species until more comparative developmental data are available. Submitted on April 30, 1959