Electrical stimulation in vitro of the metabolism of glucose by mammalian cerebral cortex

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Abstract
The changing potential gradients which increase the respiration of slices of cerebral cortex, increase also its rate of utilization of added glucose and its rate of formation of lactic acid. Respiration (the calculation assuming 6 mol. oxygen/mol. glucose) and lactic acid formation account to within 6% for the glucose lost, during stimulation as well as in its absence. Formation of lactic acid, aerobically, can rise from 15 or 40 to 100u mol./g./hr. The change takes place as promptly as can be detected by the methods employed, i.e., within 2 min. It can be maintained for an hour or more. Response to stimulation in vitro is thus in the same direction as in the brain in situ; it can be maintained much longer, but does not reach rates equal to those which appear to occur during the first few seconds after stimuli are applied in vivo.