Does anaerobic glycolysis in brain occur?

Anaerobic glycolysis is the partial breakdown of glucose in the absence of oxygen. The energy produced by this process is in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

While glycolysis can indeed happen anaerobically, glycolysis in the brain is considered to be strictly aerobic. Brain cells, particularly neurons, have enormous energy requirements and depend almost entirely on a constant supply of glucose for their primary fuel to carry out vital neurotransmission and other signaling processes. This energy supply is maintained through oxidative phosphorylation, which is a process that occurs within the mitochondria of cells that requires the presence of oxygen to be carried out.

In the brain, glucose undergoes a combination of aerobic glycolysis, where glucose is broken down in small increments, and subsequent mitochondrial respiration, where the resultant products of glycolysis undergo further breakdown to produce a significantly higher amount of ATP with the help of oxygen.

Therefore, unlike other organs that may rely on anaerobic glycolysis to obtain energy in the absence of oxygen, the brain cannot switch to anaerobic glycolysis and thus heavily depends on a constant oxygen supply.