The cerebral metabolic rates for O2 and for glucose were measured in conscious, fasted male Fischer-344 rats at the ages of 3, 12, and 24 months, and cerebral blood flow was determined with 14C-iodoantipyrine. The metabolic rates for oxygen and glucose were obtained by multiplying blood flow by the O2 and glucose concentration differences, respectively, between blood in the femoral artery and in the superior sagittal sinus. Mean cerebral blood flow and the metabolic rates for oxygen and glucose did not differ significantly (p greater than 0.05) between 3 and 12 or between 12 and 24 months. Nor did the arteriovenous differences for O2 and for glucose change significantly with age. Because the superior sagittal sinus drains blood mainly from the cerebral cortex, the results indicate that average cerebral cortical oxidative metabolism, and the coupling ratios between the cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen and cerebral blood flow and between the cerebral metabolic rate for glucose and cerebral blood flow, do not change significantly with age in the Fischer-344 rat.