system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What determines which areas of the brain are damaged during hypoxia?

When the blood and oxygen supply is cut off to the brain what determines which regions of the brain are damaged? Does the motor cortex tend to be more susceptible to damage because in states of hypoxia the body is trying to move?
gpt
Generally the areas damanaged depened on two factors

* metabolic demand
* blood supply

The first factor should be obvious. Neurons that have high resting metabolic demand are going to run out of energy first. Note that the brain *depends* on aerobic energy production and can't really get by like muscles do with anaerobic respiration.

The cortex and cerebellum along with the thalamus and pons are some of the most demanding regions.

Blood supply is important because areas that are served only by fine terminal branches of cerebral arteries are more likely to be deprived of oxygen if the cerebral blood flow decreases.

>Does the motor cortex tend to be more susceptible to damage because in states of hypoxia the body is trying to move? 

Not really. The motor cortex is pretty active even when the body doesn't try to move. And in cases of anoxia, consciousness (and hence conscious movement) will be lost within 10 s in most cases.