The authors compared 16 nondepressed obsessive-compulsive patients (OCS) with 8 normal controls (NC) of similar age for resting-state regional cerebral glucose metabolic rates (rCMRglu) using positron emission tomography with the fluorodeoxyglucose method. OCS were rated for clinical data, and a neuropsychological battery was administered to 14 patients on the day of the scan. Absolute rCMRglu for whole cortex, and normalized prefrontal lateral cortex metabolic rates, were both significantly lower in OCS than in NC. No significant difference between treated (n = 10) and drug-free (n = 6) OCS was found for those variables. OCS were significantly impaired in the neuropsychological tasks assessing memory and attention. The rCMRglu for prefrontal lateral cortex were negatively correlated to Stroop-test subscores. This "frontal-oriented" task assessed the ability of OCS to inhibit immediate but inappropriate responses. These results suggest, in OCS, a modification of the general activating systems of cortical function and a relationship between the lateral prefrontal rCMRglu decrease and a selective attention deficit.