@sundogplanets
Solidarity. 8p home-time-zone is 2nd only to day#2-different-country-jet-lagged-didn't-sleep-&-can't-think.

The purgatory is knowing that the latter is clearly not worth it (following single-trial learning) but the former is ambiguous, I mean, "just maybe 1 can do it after 1 5p cup-of-joe ...."

@neuralreckoning @laurentperrinet
I agree!

@laurentperrinet
I endorse! This was a terrific paper.

The remarkable energy efficiency of the Human brain: One #Spike Every 6 Seconds !

In the groundbreaking paper "The Cost of Cortical Computation" published in 2003 in Current Biology, neuroscientist Peter Lennie reached a stunning conclusion about neural activity in the human brain: the average firing rate of cortical neurons is approximately 0.16 Hz—equivalent to just one spike every 6 seconds.

This finding challenges conventional assumptions about neural activity and reveals the extraordinary energy efficiency of the brain's computational strategy. Unconventional? Ask a LLM about it, and it will rather point to a baseline frequency between 0.1Hz and 10Hz. Pretty high and vague, right? But how did Lennie arrive at this remarkable figure?

The Calculation Behind the 0.16 Hz Baseline Rate

Lennie's analysis combines several critical factors:

1. Energy Constraints Analysis

Starting with the brain's known energy consumption (approximately 20% of the body's entire energy budget despite being only 2% of body weight), Lennie worked backward to determine how many action potentials this energy could reasonably support.

2. Precise Metabolic Costs

His calculations incorporated detailed metabolic requirements:

• Each action potential consumes approximately 3.84 × 109 ATP molecules
• The human brain uses about 5.7 × 1021 ATP molecules daily

3. Neural Architecture

The analysis factored in essential neuroanatomical data:

• The human cerebral cortex contains roughly 1010 neurons
• Each neuron forms approximately 104 synaptic connections

4. Metabolic Distribution

Using cerebral glucose utilization measurements from PET studies, Lennie accounted for energy allocation across different neural processes:

• Maintaining resting membrane potentials
• Generating action potentials
• Powering synaptic transmission

By synthesizing these factors and dividing the available energy budget by the number of neurons and the energy cost per spike, Lennie calculated that cortical neurons can only sustain an average firing rate of approximately 0.16 Hz while remaining within the brain's metabolic constraints.

Implications for Neural Coding

This extremely low firing rate has profound implications for our understanding of neural computation. It suggests that:

1. Neural coding must be remarkably sparse — information in the brain is likely represented by the activity of relatively few neurons at any given moment
2. Energy efficiency has shaped brain evolution — metabolic constraints have driven the development of computational strategies that maximize information processing while minimizing energy use
3. Low baseline rates enable selective amplification — this sparse background activity creates a context where meaningful signals can be effectively amplified

The brain's solution to energy constraints reveals an elegant approach to computation: doing more with less through strategic sparsity rather than constant activity.

This perspective on neural efficiency continues to influence our understanding of brain function and inspires energy-efficient approaches to #ArtificialNeuralNetworks and #neuromorphic computing.

A putative neural correlate of mood!

One big (scandalous?) idea, simple analyses, and the STRONGEST brain/behavior correlation I've EVER seen (which is shocking, given that it's mood).

Work with: You-Ping Yang, @Catrina_Hacker and Veit Stuphorn

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.22.650010v1

A putative neural correlate of mood!

One big (scandalous?) idea, simple analyses, and the STRONGEST brain/behavior correlation I've EVER seen (which is shocking, given that it's mood).

Work with: You-Ping Yang, @Catrina_Hacker and Veit Stuphorn

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.22.650010v1

@neuralreckoning
Ah - got it! Sorry to misunderstand (but relieved to know).

@neuralreckoning
Yikes! Are you saying that you will willfully ignore the results of any trainee who publishes a paper in a traditional journal with some publicity (even OA, eg plos; or radical, eg eLife?). I hope I’m misunderstanding you … (perhaps the idea is that you will attend to X? Please explain … no doubt this impacts your trainees too?). I don’t know how far a “scholarly kitchen” extends 😊…

@purplepadma
FWIW: I encourage anyone who would rather not opt-in to conference social events to feel empowered to opt-out.

Personally, I draw a line at dance parties. (I dance, but why do we need to dance with our colleagues?). I’ve also skipped a few dinners to dine solo at the sushi bar. And I’ve supported not-alcohol friends who would rather meet for a coffee than a bar that serves alcohol for religious and personal reasons (and I was glad they told me).

You do you - whatever that is!! My personal experience is that a community exists to support that thing - I hope you find the same too. 💙

The cautionary words of Thomas Insel MD in his book Healing and elsewhere were part of what inspired me to write Elusive Cures - to answer questions like: What's been holding us back from an impactful understanding of the brain? I'm honored to have his endorsement.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243054/elusive-cures

@Andrewpapale
I'd be very happy to do that. One goal of the book is to inspire conversations about the "Grand Plan" - let's have them!

@Andrewpapale
Terrific! Would love to hear your thoughts on the other side.

The cautionary words of Thomas Insel MD in his book Healing and elsewhere were part of what inspired me to write Elusive Cures - to answer questions like: What's been holding us back from an impactful understanding of the brain? I'm honored to have his endorsement.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691243054/elusive-cures

Intrigued to get Nicole’d yet again (n=3). Who holds the record now? How many times have you been Nicole’d?

@manisha @somedonkey
She’s so terrific! She did a wonderful job when I had to step up to present to congresspeople (and many other things).

If any science illustrators are available to do a rush job on illustrations (around "mood") that will appear in an upcoming documentary (due EOD Sunday), please let me know. My DMs are open & my contact info is here:
www.nicolecrust.com/nicole

Thank you!

Wonderful, awe-inspiring science at its best.

Butterfly wing color is linked to mate preference. In this paper, they show how those are linked genetically and how that changes how butterfly eyes work. WOW.

Kudos to Steph Palmer and team.

Friendly breakdown:
https://biologicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/butterfly-romance-written-their-genes

Paper:
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002989

As our community increasingly shifts toward embracing the complexity of the brain, this new book by Xiao-Jing Wang will be an essential go-to.

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.1201/9781003459361/theoretical-neuroscience-xiao-jing-wang

He is among a small, prescient group that embraced important ideas before the rest of us. Here he unpacks them.

I'm always excited to see where he's looking next. On that - bingo! - read this quote from his book.

If you want to jump on this train and be a part of where it's heading, Wang's book is an excellent place to start.

What a fun time to be named Nicole … I’ll guess hold off on sending y’all those random DMs I had planned.

@jessetm
Really helpful - thank you!