Age-Related Changes in Caudate Glucose Metabolism: Insights from Normative Modeling Study in Healthy Subjects

These findings suggest that metabolic reductions in the caudate may serve as a sensitive biomarker for normal aging and offer valuable insights into the early stages of neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, by establishing age-specific reference values for caudate glucose metabolism, the normative model provides a framework for detecting deviations from expected metabolic patterns, which may facilitate the early identification of metabolic alterations that could precede clinical symptoms of neurodegenerative processes.