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J Cereb Blood Flow Metab
Published

An energy budget for signaling in the grey matter of the brain.

Authors

D Attwell, S B Laughlin

Abstract

Anatomic and physiologic data are used to analyze the energy expenditure on different components of excitatory signaling in the grey matter of rodent brain. Action potentials and postsynaptic effects of glutamate are predicted to consume much of the energy (47% and 34%, respectively), with the resting potential consuming a smaller amount (13%), and glutamate recycling using only 3%. Energy usage depends strongly on action potential rate--an increase in activity of 1 action potential/cortical neuron/s will raise oxygen consumption by 145 mL/100 g grey matter/h. The energy expended on signaling is a large fraction of the total energy used by the brain; this favors the use of energy efficient neural codes and wiring patterns. Our estimates of energy usage predict the use of distributed codes, with

PMID:11598490 | DOI:

UK DRI Authors

David Atwell

Prof David Attwell

Centre Director

Investigating how the brain’s energy supply is reduced by a decrease of blood flow in both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia

Prof David Attwell